
UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 



3llmetican iHdigiou^ Heatier^ \_^ \_^ 



FRANCIS WAYLAND 



:^ 



JAMES O. MURRAY 

DEAN UTD PBOFESSOS OP ENGLISH LITEEATUEE IN PEINCBTON COtLKGB 




/ ^(P /, 



BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 

1891 






Copyright, 1891, 
By JAMES 0. MUEEAT. 

All rights reserved. 



/l-Z(o4'fX^ 



The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A. 
Electrotyped and Printed by H. O. Houghton & Company. 



For the pursuit of truth hath been my only care ever since I 
first understood the meaning of the tvord. For this I have forsaken 
all hopes, all friends, all desires which might bias me and hinder 
me from driving right at what I aimed. For this I have spent 
my means, my youth, my age, and all I have, that I might remove 
from myself that censure of Tertullian, " Suo vitio quis quid ignorat." 
If with all this cost and pains my purchase is but error, I may 
safely say, to err hath cost me more than it has many to find the truth ; 
and truth itself shall give me this testimony at last, that if I have 
missed of her, it is not my faidt, but my misfortune. 

John Hai^s of Eton. Letter to Archbishop Laud. 



PEEFACE. 



The preparation of this volume was intrusted 
to my hands as a pupil of Dr. Wayland. It was 
undertaken in the spirit of gratitude to a teacher 
for whose character and influence, while living, 
the author had the deepest reverence, and for 
whose memory, when dead, a great and growing 
appreciation. A Memoir of his life and labors had 
been written in 1867 with pious care by his sons, 
the Hon. Francis Wayland, of Yale University, 
and the Rev. Dr. H. Lincoln Wayland, of Phil- 
adelphia. The volumes were cordially placed at 
the disposal of the author, with a full permission 
to use their contents. If this book shall fulfil its 
purpose in bringing Dr. Wayland freshly to view 
as one of the leaders in the religious thought 
of America, it will be because facilities so rich 
were thus offered the writer. By the wise sug- 
gestion of his family, Dr. Wayland had written 



vi PREFACE. 

out with some fullness Reminiscences of his life. 
These were incorporated in the biography pub- 
lished by his sons. As occasion served, they 
have been quoted as adding an element of auto- 
biographical interest to the book. And if the 
author's frequent use of the biographical mate- 
rial in the published Memoir of Dr. Wayland 
shall lead any readers to the more full details of 
that life there faithfully given, he will feel that 
he has not written wholly in vain. 

The greater part of Dr. Wayland's life was 
spent in the work of education. Yet he was none 
the less on that account a leader in religious 
thought. It was religious thought mainly as to 
the practical working of Christianity, not as to its 
dogmatic statements. He had no theory of edu- 
cation which admitted of any divorce between it 
and religion, nay, between it and the Christian 
faith. He was distinctively a religious teacher 
all his life, In the classroom, on the platform, 
through the press, and In the pulpit. Dr. Arnold, 
of Rugby, moulded the religious thinking of his 
pupils, and so ultimately that of wide circles in 
England. The same may be said of Dr. Wayland 
in America. And of no man who has appeared 



PREFACE. vii 

among us to assume the high office of the Chris- 
tian educator can the noble words of John Hales, 
of Eton, which stand opposite the title-page of 
this volume, hold true in a sense more unquali- 
fied than of Francis Wayland. In the hope, there- 
fore, that the work may bring his strong and 
noble personality, with its high Christian en- 
deavor and high Christian attainment in the ser- 
vice of his fellow-men, freshly before this gener- 
ation, it is committed to that public which in 
America has always been quick to revere and 
quick to foUow such a leader. 

James O; Murray. 

Pkinceton College, September 2, 1890. 



CONTENTS. 



FAOB 

CHAPTER I. 
Eablt Yeabs : Home and Student Lipb 1 



CHAPTER II. 

Tutorship at Union CoXiLEOE: Boston Pastorate. 
1817-1827 31 

CHAPTER III. 
Pbesidenct of Bbown University. 1827-1840 . . 69 

CHAPTER IV. 

I^BEBIDENCT OF BrOWN UNIVERSITY. 1841-1855 . . 88 

CHAPTER V. 
Last Years. 1855-1865 115 

CHAPTER VI. 
Db. Watland as an Educator 162 

CHAPTER VIL 
Dr. Wayland as an Author 196 

CHAPTER VIII. 
Dr. Wayland as a Preacher 229 

CHAPTER IX. 
Db. Wayland as a Philanthropist and Citizen. . 254 



FRANCIS WAYLAND. 



CHAPTER I. 

EARLY YEARS: HOME AND STUDENT LIFE. 

It may justly be said of Di\ Wayland that he 
was happy in the oppoi'tunity of his life. That 
life was passed in the formative period of our 
educational and religious institutions. At no 
time could his powers have counted for more; 
at no time, indeed, could he have better done his 
appointed work. No sooner had the war for in- 
dependence ended and the government of the 
United States been placed on a settled basis by 
the adoption of the Constitution ; no sooner had 
the national life begun to flow in its new chan- 
nels, than there was a great advance along all 
the lines of denominational activity and educa- 
tional enterprise. Everything which before had 
been carried on in scattered, sporadic methods, 
now tended to organization. Boards of foreign 
and home missions were established. Bible and 
tract societies were organized. Theological semi- 
naries were founded. New colleges were planted, 



2 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

and the older institutions more liberally en- 
dowed. The religious press was multiplied. 
Associations for moral reform were instituted. 
The first half of this century was prolific in all 
these movements. 

In this development, religious and educational, 
the Baptist denomination bore an honorable part. 
This is the more creditable to that religious body, 
because its early history in this country had been 
largely one of struggle under persecutions more 
or less bitter. Baptists fared hardly in the New 
England Colonies. They had a treatment scarce- 
ly less hard at the hands of the Dutch in New 
York and from the authorities in Virginia and 
Georgia. Only in Maryland and Rhode Island 
did they have a fair and undisturbed opportu- 
nity for growth.^ 

No sooner, however, were their disabilities re- 
moved, than they entered upon a growth which 
now ranks them in point of numbers second 
among the Christian denominations.^ In 1817, 
it is said there were only three educated Baptist 
ministers west of the Hudson River in the State 

1 Armitage's History of the Baptists, see pp. 686 et seq. 
■^ The relative numbers of Baptist and Methodist churches, 
ministers, and members are as follows : — 

CHURCHES. MINISTERS. MEMBERS. 

Baptist, 48,371 32,343 4,292,291 

Methodist, 54,711 31,765 4,980,240 

The Independent, July 31, 1890. 



EARLY YEARS. 6 

of New York. The Baptists had, however, be- 
fore the Revolution, begun to plant institutions 
of learning. Under the auspices of the Philadel- 
phia Association of Baptists, the academy at 
Hopewell, N. J., was founded in 1756. Brown 
University, then Rhode Island College, received 
its charter in February, 1764. And when, after 
the war of independence was ended, the general 
movement for enlarged education began, the 
Bajitists were not behind other churches in their 
zeal and self-sacrifice. In 1813, the Maine Lit- 
erary and Theological Institute, now Colby Uni- 
versity, received its charter. In 1825, the Ham- 
ilton (N. Y.) Literary and Theological Insti- 
tution was opened. The Newton (Mass.) Theo- 
logical Institution began its career in 1825. 
These are facts illustrating the energetic spirit, 
which then among the Baptists was pushing 
the cause of higher education. It was alike for- 
tunate for that denomination, and for the inter- 
ests of good learning, that a man was raised up 
singularly fitted by natural endowments and by 
training, for various and important movements 
in social progress, especially in the line of edu- 
cation. 

Francis Wayland was born March 11, 1796, 
in the city of New York. He came of English 
stock on both sides, his father, Francis Wayland, 
being a native of Frorae, Somersetshire, and his 



4 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

mother, Sarah (Moore) Wayland, a native of 
Norwich, England. His ancestors, further re- 
moved, were from the middle class of English 
society, and were dissenters of Baptist senti- 
ments.^ Shortly after their marriage, his par- 
ents emigrated to this country, landing at New 
York September 20, 1793. In that city his fa- 
ther at once set up his business as a currier. By 
aid of a small capital, and still more by means 
of his own skill, industry, and integrity, he 
throve in his calling. The time was propitious 
for such a venture, and a prosperous business 
career at once opened before him. Mr. Way- 
land and his wife had both been members of a 
Baptist Church in London. After their arrival 
in New York they joined what was then the 
Fayette Street Baptist Church, subsequently, 
by that process of ecclesiastical transmigration 
common to all churches in the metropolis, the 
Oliver Street, and now the Madison Avenue, 
Baptist Church. It is a tribute to his piety and 
weight of character that Mr. Wayland was soon 
appointed one of its deacons. The home life of 
Dr. W^ayland, like the home life of New Eng- 
land Puritans, was marked strongly by its reli- 

^ An uncle, the Rev. Daniel S. Wayland, between -whom 
and Dr. Wayland a cordial intimacy subsisted, seems, however, 
to have been in the Established Church, a rector of the parish 
in Bassingham, England. 



EARLY YEARS. 5 

gious features. Sunday especially was made a 
day of Christian nurture. In Reminiscences of 
his early life, which Dr. Wayland prepared at 
the request of his family, is preserved a graphic 
picture of the religious training in that house- 
hold. 

" On the Lord's day, the rule of the family 
was for all the children to learn a hymn before 
dinner, and a portion of the Catechism before 
tea. The former was repeated to my mother, 
the latter to my father. It was not his custom 
to attend th» evening meeting. After tea, or at 
candle -lighting, we were all assembled in the 
parlor, my father, or one of the older children, 
read some suitable passage of Scripture, which 
he explained and illustrated, frequently direct- 
ing the conversation so as to make a personal 
application to some one or other of us. Singing 
and prayer followed. Occasionally some little 
refreshment was introduced, and we retired each 
at an early hour to bed. This domestic service 
was never interrupted until my father became a 
preacher and spent most of his Sabbath even- 
ings in public worship." What, however, seems 
quite as influential a factor in Dr. Wayland's 
early training was the contact with religious and 
political discussions carried on in his father's 
house. The church officers had formed an as- 
sociation, visiting each other's houses at special 



6 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

seasons, and making such visits the occasion in 
part for political debate, mainly, it seems, for 
" questions of doctrinal or experimental reli- 
gion." Bible study formed a prominent part of 
the evening's occupation ; but such authors as An- 
drew Fuller, Augustus Toplady, and John New- 
ton, appear to have been freely quoted. With 
all this, from time to time, political discussions 
were mingled. The Baptists had suffered much 
from what was called the " Standing Order," ^ 
which in New England had been somewhat 
rigorously enforced against tliem^ This was 
understood to be supported by the Federalists, 
while the Republicans, on the other hand, fa- 
vored an " unrestricted freedom in matters of 
religious opinion." It was natural, therefore, 
that the sympathies of the Baptists should lie 
with the latter party. The whole subject was 
under discussion by the Baptist laymen as they 
met. Nor is it difficult to imagine a young lad 
sitting quietly by and watching with serious 
eyes his elders as they discoursed on these high 
themes of Christian experience, doctrine, and 
polity. It was an education which was no mean 
adjunct to his early training, and its influence 
can be plainly traced in his later life. 

By degrees the attention of the senior Way- 
land was turned toward the Christian ministry. 

^ Dr. Armitage's History of the Baptists, pp. 740-741. 



EARLY YEARS. 7 

He probably had shown more than common 
gifts in exhortation. Accordingly he sought 
from the church a license to preach the gospel. 
To secure this it was necessary, according to 
the practice of Baptist churches at that time, 
that he should preach before the church of which 
he was a member, his brethren deciding on his 
qualifications for the ministry. The custom had 
much to recommend it. Certain it is that if 
churches and congregations had the licensing 
power, after testing the actual gifts of candi- 
dates, some licenses would be withheld which 
bishops and presbyteries and councils and con- 
ferences now see fit to bestow. 

Mr. Way land successfully passed the ordeal, 
and June 10, 1805, received a license to preach, 
on the same evening with his Christian brother 
and lifelong friend, Daniel Sharp, of honored 
memory, so long the pastor of the Charles 
Street Baptist Church in Boston. 

Dr. Wayland says that his father at first only 
intended to become a lay preacher. For three 
or four years he continued in business, preach- 
ing to destitute churches in the vicinity of New 
York. But the work grew on his hands. He 
could not serve two masters, and after long and 
anxious deliberation he decided to throw up his 
worldly vocation with all its prospects of suc- 
cess, and devote himself exclusively to the work 



8 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

of the ministry. Accordingly he became pastor 
of the Baptist Church in Poughkeepsie in 1807, 
and subsequently of churches in Albany, Troy, 
and Saratoga Springs. 

That Dr. Wayland's views of the importance 
belonging to pastoral care, and of the supreme 
duty of the Christian Church to have the gospel 
preached to the poor, vievi^s which characterized 
his latest work on earth, were due in great part 
to his father's example, is clear. Yet his early 
training fell mostly into the hands of his mother. 
His father's frequent absences from home threw 
him into her society. She made him her com- 
panion, relating to him anecdotes of the suffer- 
ings and deaths of martyrs, some of which were 
associated with the scenes of her childhood. Dr. 
Wayland's intense abhorrence of every form of 
religious intolerance was a well-known trait of 
his character. It is traceable in great j)art to 
the influence upon his mind of these recitals. 
She told him of the spot in Norwich — her birth- 
place — " where, in the reign of Mary, many 
Protestants had suffered martyrdom," and also 
" of the remains of an old abbey church in the 
dungeons of which many pious persons had been 
tortured." We learn from church history that 
Richard Bilney, the spiritual father of Latimer, 
and one of the noblest spirits of the English 
Reformation, was burned at Norwich, August 



EARLY YEARS. 9 

19, 1531.^ It was to liis martyrdom that she 
probably referred. 

Dr. Wayland's Christian character was pro- 
foundly affected by the influence and by the 
memory of his mother. Her piety was precisely 
of the type to attract and to mould such a mind 
as his. It was intelligent and active, but with 
intelligence and activity seems also to have been 
blended a saintly type of devotion. Dr. Way- 
laud names " her lovely humility, her childlike 
meekness, her touching self-denial and disinter- 
estedness, and her tender and affecting charity " 
as her peculiar graces. One of her character- 
istic religious traits was " delight in tracing the 
progress of the cause of Christ, the diffusion of 
knowledge, and the triumphs of freedom in every 
part of the globe." It is easy to find this repro- 
duced in the life of her son, and his noted sermon 
on "The Certain Triumph of the Redeemer's 
Kingdom " bears on its pages the subtle charm 
of early maternal teachings. Probably he owed 
almost as much on the intellectual side as on the 
religious to his mother. Her intellectual char- 
acter was marked. In the letter to his father 
written on hearing of her death, he recalls her 
" superior mind, her accurate and discriminating 
judgment, her strong and expansive thirst for 
knowledge." The relations between mother and 
^ Geikie's English Eeformation, pp. 202-204. 



10 FBAN-CIS WAYLAND. 

son were so close and constant, that her mother- 
hood transfused its noblest qualities into the 
forming character of the affectionate and rever- 
encing son. It would be difficult to find in the 
multijjlying examples of saintly motherhood any 
instance more marked for spiritual beauty and 
for spiritual power. 

Dr. Wayland's school life began inauspi- 
ciously. His first schoolmaster is described by 
him as a man " who never taught us anything," 
and in whose school " was only one motive to 
obedience, — terror." " I do not remember," 
say the Reminiscences, "anything approaching 
explanation while I was at the school. A sum was 
set, and the pupil left to himself to find out the 
method of doing it. If it was wrong, the error 
was marked, and he must try again. If again 
it was wrong, he was imprisoned after school, or 
he was whipped. . . . Geogi-aphy was studied 
without a map, by the use of a perfectly dry 
compendium. I had no idea what was meant 
by bounding a country, though I duly repeated 
the boundaries at recitation. I studied English 
grammar in the same way." 

Such experiences are in his case the more 
worthy of note because they were remembered 
to good purpose in his after career as a teacher. 
His pupils in college all recalled the fact that 
lucid explanation was a cardinal point in all his 



HOME AND STUDENT LIFE. 11 

instructions. His abhorrence of confused and 
muddy conceptions of any subject may be dated 
from his own sufferings in his earliest school- 
days. On the occasion of his father's removal 
to Poughkeepsie, being then in his eleventh 
year, he was placed in the Dutchess County 
Academy. At first there seemed little change 
for the better in the quality of instruction. Here 
he began the study of the classics. It was pur- 
sued at that time evidently under great dif- 
ficulties. In Greek the Westminster Greek 
Grammar was the text-book for beginners. The 
text was in Latin. Students were expected to 
master its rules before their knowledge of Latin 
was equal to construing simple narrative Latin 
sentences. Fifteen years later, Sydney Smith 
satirized this method of classical study, in his ar- 
ticle on the " Method of Teaching Languages." ^ 
He used the Westminster Grammar as the stalk- 
ing-horse from which to shoot his arrows of wit. 
"From the Westminster Grammar we make 
the following extract, and some thousand rules 
conveyed in poetry of equal merit must be fixed 
upon the mind of the youthful Grecian, before 
he advances into the interior of the language." 

" ta finis thematis finis utriusque futuri est. 
Post liquideni in primo, vel in nnoquoque secundo, 
« circumflexus est. Ante <o finale character 
Explicitns Se primi est iraplicitusque futuri 
u itaque in quo 5 quasi plexuni est solitu in Sw." 
1 Edinburgh Review, 1826. 



12 FEANCIS WAY LAND. 

Fortunately, however, at a later period he 
came under a teacher, who understood the great 
art of instruction. An enthusiast in his call- 
ing, he seems to have inspired his pupils with a 
kindred enthusiasm, to have cultivated in them 
also habits of self-reliance. This teacher, Mr. 
Daniel H. Barnes, had indeed accomplished a 
great part of Dr. Wayland's education when he 
taught his pupil " to study for the love of it and 
to take a pride in accurate knowledge." This 
was a fruitful period in his mental development. 
Not only in general scholarship was the progress 
marked by his fellow -students as well as his 
teacher, but he showed signs of becoming the 
" good, strong speaker " of later days. One of 
his early declamations was an extract from some 
orator on "Injured Africa." Injured Africa 
was a subject which occupied his thoughts to his 
latest day, and on no theme did he ever discourse 
more eloquently. So too his abiding interest 
in the career of Napoleon I. dates from these 
school-days. He studied that career profoundly. 
It fascinated him, and he was an admirer of 
the military genius of the great Corsican. The 
dread of Napoleon, which was then oppressing 
England, was shared to some extent by this 
country. After the fashion of those days, the 
pupils were set to dispute the following ques- 
tion, " If Bonaparte should conquer England, can 



HOME AND STUDENT LIFE. 13 

he conquer America ? " Young Way land took 
the affirmative, maintaining it with no little skill 
for a boy of his years. At this school, Dr. 
Wayland remained till the removal of his 
father to Albany in 1811. He applied for ad- 
mission to the freshman class of Union College, 
Schenectady, N. Y., in May of that year. Upon 
examination he was told that he could be ad- 
mitted to the sophomore class, and joined it in 
the third term, being then fifteen years of age. 
His only deficiency was in mathematics, which 
was made up in the ensuing vacation. To his 
college course, so far as instruction went, he 
does not seem to have owed much. That he 
was a hard student, popular with his classmates, 
fond of athletic sports as well, observant of the 
college discipline, the testimony of his fellow- 
students shows. But the course of instruction 
must have been meagre even for that day. He 
says of it in the Reminiscences : " The course 
was very limited. Chemistry was scarcely born ; 
electricity was a plaything ; algebra was studied 
for six weeks ; and geology was named only to 
be laughed at." 

If, however, he owed little to the curriculum 
of study as then pursued, he owed to Dr. Nott, 
then in the beginning of his long and honored 
presidency, what was a liberal education in itself. 
His tributes to Dr. Nott make this abundantly 



14 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

clear. And that lie had shown marked ability 
in the mastery of his studies as well as high 
character, is evinced by his subsequent appoint- 
ment to the position of tutor in the college. 
He was graduated July 28, 1813, at seventeen 
years of age. It marks one difference between 
college education in that day and this, to note 
that this is now hardly the average age of stu- 
dents at entrance in our higher institutions. 

Immediately after his graduation he began a 
course of medical study. This was at that time 
pursued mainly in the offices of distinguished 
practitioners, supplemented, in the case of those 
whose means admitted of it, with a course of 
lectures in one of the medical schools. Follow- 
ing this method he studied under Dr. Moses 
Hale and Dr. Eli Burritt in Troy. The winter 
of 1814-15 was occupied in attending medical 
lectures in the city of New York. 

It was while engaged in these professional 
studies that Dr. Wayland experienced a sort of 
intellectual regeneration. This is not uncom- 
mon in the lives of distinguished men. Readers 
of Carlyle will recall the well-known passage in 
" Sartor Eesartus," ^ where is described what he 
calls his "Spiritual new -birth, or Baphometic 
Fire-baptism." In the case of Dr. Wayland, it 
seems to have been more purely a mental trans- 
1 Book 2, chapter 7. 



HUME AND STUDENT LIFE. 15 

formation. He makes much account of it in the 

Reminiscences. After a lengthened description 
of his desultory habits of reading-, of his inabil- 
ity to appreciate " abstract thought," he says : — 

" I then first became conscious of a decided 
change in my whole intellectual character. I was 
sitting by a window in an attic room which I oc- 
cupied as a sort of study, or reading place, and by 
accident I ojiened a volume of the ' Spectator ' 
— I think it was one of the essays forming Ad- 
dison's Critique on Milton, — it was, at any rate, 
something purely didactic. I commenced read- 
ing it, and to my delight and surprise found 
that I understood and really enjoyed it. I could 
not account for the change. I read on, and 
found that the very essays which I had for- 
merly passed over without caring to read them 
were now to me the gems of the whole book, 
vastly more attractive than the stories and nar- 
ratives that I had formerly read with so much 
interest. 1 knew not how to account for it. I 
could explain it on no other theory than that a 
change had taken place in myself. I awoke to 
the consciousness that I was a thinking being, 
and a citizen, in some sort, of the republic of 
letters." 

His intellectual regeneration was complete. 
The fondness for fiction, once strong, never re- 
turned. Aside from want of intei'est in this 



16 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

kind of literature he seems also to have shrunk 
from all sorts of painful description. This 
change in the mental tastes which lay at the 
fomidation of his intellectual development, oc- 
curred in his eighteenth or nineteenth year. It 
was followed by a spiritual regeneration, which 
still more profoundly affected the character and 
changed the currents of life for him. 

Dr. Wayland was one of that class who suf- 
fered from the theological training too often 
then imposed on the young. He dwells at some 
length on this in his Reminiscences, sj)eaks of 
his father's earlier views — those in which he 
was bred — as very rigid Calvinism, modified in 
later years through the teachings of Andrew 
FiiUer. Not questioning any views which had 
been inculcated in him, he was yet miserable 
under their influence. " I believed," he says, 
" the truths of religion, for aught I know, as 
fully as I do now. But my heart was unmoved. 
I had some wish to -be a Christian, but I had no 
true idea of faith or repentance, and all the 
theological illustrations which I heard seemed to 
involve the subject in deeper darkness. . . . 
When I reflected at all upon religion I was mis- 
erable." It is evident that his mental sufferings 
were both poignant and prolonged. No help 
came to him from sermons he heard or books he 
read. He was treading a solitary path, — work- 



HOME AND STUDENT LIFE. 17 

iug" out his ovm salvation with fear and trem- 
bling. The experiences, however, which he then 
underwent had on him a twofold effect, — one 
speculative, the other practical. They made him 
averse to anything* like closely reticulated theo- 
logical systems. , They made him an admirable 
religious guide for many a young soul entangled 
in religious troubles of whatever type and how- 
ever begotten. 

It was not till the close of his medical stud- 
ies that his soul gained the needed relief. His 
mental sufferings had increased, until he re- 
solved to drop everything else and bend all 
efforts to end the long struggle. He gave him- 
self up to the solitude of his room, reading 
the Scriptures and calling upon God. It went 
on so for days. " How long time I remained in 
this condition I do not now remember. I was 
embarrassed by ignorance of the plan of salva- 
tion, — an ignorance all the more embarrassing 
because I supposed it to be knowledge. I had 
marked out a plan of conversion in accordance 
with the prevailing theological notions." The 
struggle seemed fruitless, and at length he re- 
turned to his usual duties. Fortunately he 
found in the Rev. Mr. Mattison of Vermont, a 
Baptist clei'gyman, a man who understood his 
case and whose wise counsels did him excellent 
service. The expectation of some extraordinary 



18 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

inward revelation was given up, and the fact ac- 
cepted that he was already a child of God. It 
seems strange that he was so long involved in 
these distressing doubts. In his Reminiscences 
he attributes much of this to the pride which de- 
sired a '' striking conversion." This type of con- 
version was highly prized and eagerly sought in 
those days of burning revivals. It is possible, 
indeed, that he may have had some of this desire. 
But it seems more in accordance with the struc- 
ture of his mind to think that he was unable to 
find rest for his soul, till he had worked his way 
clear through all the logical and theological dif- 
ficulties caused by the early training of which 
mention has been made. This incident in his 
conversion is noteworthy as showing the falseness 
of notions, now happily outgrown, which made 
of " striking conversions " a snare for spiritual 
self-conceit. If for a time, as he says, he was 
under the power of such an ambition, it only 
shows the strength of the delusion then preva- 
lent which could so entangle a natui^e like his, 
singularly free in earlier and later life from 
everything like ostentation. 

He was baptized and received into the mem- 
bership of the Baptist Church, the church of his 
fathers, of whose history he was proud, and his 
loyalty to which all his subsequent life proved. 
It was entirely characteristic of him that he 



HOME AND STUDENT LIFE. 19 

threw himself at once into Christian work. On 
the organization of a Sabbath-school in Troy, 
he offered his services as a teacher. The class 
he selected was one of colored boys, and the 
reasons assigned for his choice were their greater 
need of instruction and the opportunity thus 
given for " following out most closely the ex- 
ample of Christ." In this incident, we see the 
germ of that spirit which moved him, when 
President of Brown University, to teach a Bible 
class of convicts in the penitentiary at Provi- 
dence. 

The spiritual change which prompted this 
step prompted also another and greater, no less 
than the abandonment of the medical profession 
and entrance upon the ministry of the gospel. 
It was a serious matter to thiow by the prepa- 
ration of several years for active life, and enter 
upon a new step cf preparation for a wholly dif- 
ferent sphere of activity. He was ready to begin 
the practice of medicine, — had in fact already 
begun its practice. To engage in theological 
study involved pecuniary struggle, his father's 
means having been much diminished by finan- 
cial losses. It put off indefinitely settlement 
in life, and necessitated arduous work on new 
lines of study. His interest in the science of 
medicine was strong, and that he would have 
risen to eminence in the profession there is 



20 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

every reason to believe. But whatever he 
might have become as a medical practitioner in 
Troy, he never could have reached the larger 
fame, the nobler usefulness, he attained as a 
preacher and an educator. The world has been 
deeply the gainer by his change of callings. It 
was made, not without careful thought. He was 
never a man of impulses. It involved some 
degree of struggle. The work of a j)liysician 
was congenial to him. He always cherished 
profound respect for the medical calling. But 
he never in any matter halted between two opin- 
ions. His decision of character was operative 
here, and no sooner was he reasonably sure of 
himself as a Christian disciple than he obeyed 
the divine impulse which impelled him toward 
the ministry of reconciliation. His home train- 
ing, especially the example of his father, who had 
relinquished a growing and lucrative business 
to preach the Gospel, was a factor in his choice. 
But it was least of all in his thoughts to enter 
upon the sacred calling without special training 
for it. The trend of his denomination was not, 
at that time, strongly toward an educated min- 
istry. The Baptists had indeed begun their work 
in theological education by planting a theolog- 
ical institute at Waterville in 1813. But this 
was far distant and was not fully manned. An- 
dover Seminary, founded in 1807, had already 



HOME AND STUDENT LIFE. 21 

gained high repute as a school of sacred learn- 
ing. Princeton Seminary, founded five years 
later, in 1812, was rapidly gaining its honored 
position under the guidance of Dr. Archibald 
Alexander and Dr. Samuel Miller. The ad- 
vantages of both institutions, respectively, were 
urged upon him by their friends, and carefully 
weighed. An acquaintance with Dr. Elias Coi*- 
nelius of Boston, which later ripened into friend- 
ship, decided his choice in favor of And over 
Seminary, — a choice never regretted by him. 
The hand of welcome. Dr. Cornelius assured him, 
would be extended at Andover, and also sub- 
stantial aid, if desired. In the autumn of 1816 
Dr. Wayland once more began student life in 
the Theological Seminary at Andover. 

The Andover of that day was just beginning 
its great career as a theological seminary. There 
was " oue four -story brick building." The 
faculty was composed of Dr. Leonard Woods, 
Professor of Christian Theology ; Dr. Ebenezer 
Porter, Professor of Sacred Rhetoric ; and Dr. 
Moses Stuart, Professor of Sacred Literature. 
On the catalogue of that year, 1816-17, are 
found the names of sixty-seven students. That 
they made up a student-body full of intellectual 
as well as spiritual life is evident from such 
names on the roll as those of Ira Chase, one 
of the founders of Newton Theological Semi- 



22 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

nary in 1825, and professor there for twenty 
years ; of Joseph Torrey, for forty years con- 
nected with the University of Vermont, made its 
president in 1863, and still more widely known 
as the translator of Neander's Church History ; 
of missionaries like Pliny Fisk, one of the first 
American missionaries to Western Asia ; of Hi- 
ram Bingham, the veteran missionary to the 
Sandwich Islands ; of John King, the well- 
known missionary to Greece ; of other divines 
like Joel Hawes, and Henry J. Kipley, and Or- 
ville Dewey. With such men Dr. Wayland 
came at once into cordial sympathy. They rec- 
ognized his earnestness and purpose, and he felt 
the stimulating power of such companionship. 
The simplicity of the life then in vogue, the old- 
time Puritan simplicity, pleased him, and he 
found friends on every hand. In less than half 
an hour from his arrival in town, he had passed 
his examination under Dr. Woods, and had be- 
come a member of the institution. 

During his residence at Andover, he seems to 
have been under the tuition of only one pro- 
fessor. The junior class, of which he was a 
member, met Dr. Woods and Dr. Porter only at 
what was called the " Professors' Conference." 
This was held once a fortnight in the evening, 
and seems to have been a familiar lecture or dis- 
course on topics connected with religious expe- 



HOME AND STUDKiXT LIFE. 23 

rience, followed by questions from the students. 
This service made decided impression on Dr. 
Wayland. He preserved his notes of these lec- 
tures. It was in its nature an exercise to inter- 
est him deeply, beings thoroughly practical. At 
Princeton Seminary, this feature of seminary life 
still maintained, has marked deeply the whole 
history of the institution. The " Conference Pa- 
pers " of Dr. Charles Hodge have illustrated its 
scope and power. 

" It was at Andover that I first learned to 
study," Dr. Wayland once said. He was 
speaking of his instruction in the seminary by 
Professor Moses Stuart. His introduction to 
this eminent teacher occurred before he reached 
the institution. " I well remember," he says in 
his address at the semi-centennial of Andover 
Seminary, " my first introduction to the man 
to whom I owe so much. It occurred in the 
stage-coach between Boston and Andover, when 
I was coming to enter the seminaiy. Professor 
Stuart and the late Rev. Sereno E. Dwight 
were among the passengers. The conversation 
between these two eminent men turned mainly 
on the Unitarian controversy, which was then 
occupying a large share of piablic attention. It 
was well worth a journey to Andover to witness 
the movement of Pi-ofessor Stuart's mind upon 
the question. While he spoke with the highest 



24 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

respect of tlie talents and learning of those 
from whom he differed, the unshaken, elastic, 
and joyous confidence with which he held the 
truth as he believed it, stirred your mind like 
the sound of a trumpet. He was ready at any 
moment to enter upon the controversy, and to 
carry it to the utmost limits of exegetical in- 
quiry. All he wanted was a fair field and no 
favor. All he wished was the triumph of truth, 
and he was ever ready to surrender any religious 
belief he held, if he could not on the acknow- 
ledged principles of interpretation show that it 
was taught in the Holy Scriptures." The ride 
in this stage-coach from Boston to Andover with 
Professor Stuart was for Dr. Wayland one of 
those crises in life, apparently trivial, but mould- 
ing and coloring the whole future. From that 
hour began a friendship, the influence of which 
Dr. Wayland never ceased to feel. It was just 
such a mind and just such a spirit as would at 
once impress, delight, and hold him under their 
sway. It was no ill-fortune which placed him 
for that year mainly, if not wholly, under the 
teachings of Moses Stuart. His entire time 
was thus given to exegetical study, both of the 
Old and New Testaments. The picture he has 
drawn of his student life is worth preserving, as 
furnishing a view of the demands of theolog- 
ical discipline in those days. The " laborare " 
and the " orare " were duly mingled. 



HOME AND HTUDENT LIFE. 25 

" I have risen through the shortest days at 
six o'clock, nearly an hour before it was light 
enough to see to read. That is the time of the 
ringing of the first bell through the term. From 
six to seven is spent in private and family devo- 
tion. At seven the bell rings for prayers, which 
one of the senior class conducts. The exercises 
are singing, reading a portion of Scripture, and 
prayer. Thence we repair to breakfast. From 
breakfast till nine o'clock is, or ought to be, de- 
voted to exercise. At nine we commence study, 
and study till half past twelve, when we eat din- 
ner. From one to three, study. At three, reci- 
tation. This generally continues till prayers at 
five. After pi'ayers (in the evening by the pro- 
fessors in rotation), supper. After supper, a 
little exercise, and then study or writing till half 
past ten. From that time till eleven, devotions ; 
at eleven, bed. Sometimes we go to bed a little 
earlier. On Mondays and Thursdays we recite 
Hebrew ; on Tuesdays and Fridays, Greek. 
There is no skimming over the surface here. A 
man must go to the bottom if he goes at all." 

It is evident from this account that life at 
Andover Seminary in those days was serious 
business. Something of this ancient rigidity has 
doubtless been relaxed according to modern no- 
tions. The demand was none too rigid for the 
men of that day. Tbey seem to have survived 



26 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

it, and to have been all the better equipped for 
their work as ministers by dint of it. At least 
this was the case with Dr. Way land. There can 
be no doubt that his original capacity for hard 
work was great, and as little doubt that this An- 
dover regime developed that capacity to its ut- 
most tension. There were difficulties in the path 
of the student of Hebrew in those daj^s which 
have long disappeared. The only text-book in 
Hebrew Grammar then accessible to students 
v/as that published by Professor Stuart in 1813. 
It was only a compendium, and without vowel- 
points. To the class of which Dr. Wayland 
was a member, he gave instruction by lectures 
on Hebrew Grammar, using- the vowel-points. 
These lectures were taken down by the class in 
note-books. It is a proof of Professor Stuart's 
genius that lecturing thus on a subject dry as 
Hebrew Grammar, he could raise enthusiasm in 
all his pupils. Students suffered also from the 
expensiveness of books. A Hebrew Bible and 
lexicon cost at that time from thirty to forty dol- 
lars. Dr. Wayland once showed his sons a copy 
of Schleusner's New Testament Lexicon, in two 
volumes, bound in parchment, and said, " While 
I was at Andover I had ten dollars left ; I was 
very much in want of a coat. I had an oppor- 
tunity to buy this book for ten dollars, and so I 
went without the coat." 



HOME AND STUDENT LIFE. 27 

The year was one of more or less anxiety due 
to pecuniary embarrassment. At its close lie 
found himself so straitened for want of means 
that he was compelled to look about for some 
employment iu teaching. The kindness of An- 
dover friends had been unfailing. They had 
supplied his board and possibly other aid. But 
the end of his first year in Andover Seminary 
found him face to face with the problem of his 
own support. In fact, the entire year had been 
a struggle with poverty. - It depressed his spirits. 
It was not in his nature to live comfortably in 
dependence on others. He saw no prospect of 
being able to increase his slender resources by 
any labors while in the seminary. It grieved 
him to be taxing the devoted kindness of his 
parents, when he knew at what saci-ifice their aid 
was rendered. In short, it was an experience in 
life which he never forgot. It left its traces on 
him through life in a horror of debt and in a 
true sympathy with that class of deserving stu- 
dents who worry through their education on 
scanty means. 

At this juncture he received a letter from his 
friend and former teacher. Professor McAuley, 
informing him of a vacancy in one of the tutor- 
ships at Union College. This opened a door of 
escape from the pressure of financial burdens. 
He made application for it, and promptly re- 



28 FEANCIS WAYLAND. 

ceived the appointment. This is characteristic- 
ally noticed in his Reminiscences : " I have re- 
ceived many appointments since, some of which 
seemed important ; some instances of what men 
call good fortune have happened to me ; but I 
cannot recollect anything of the kind that af- 
forded me so much joy as this. It gave me the 
means of living ; it enabled me to pursue my 
studies, and it was a sort of recognition of abil- 
ity and acquisition which I had never hoped for, 
but which was all the moi-e gratifying." 

It is not strange that Dr. Wayland hailed this 
appointment as tutor at Union College with 
such joy. It did not mean that he was faltering 
in his purpose to pursue his theological educa- 
tion. It meant for him an exemption from a 
dependence on others that galled his spirit. It 
was definitely his purpose to return and re- 
sume the course of study in Andover Seminary. 
That this purpose was never carried out "is 
true. In some respects it was unfortunate for 
him. Aside from the importance to him of a 
more thorough theological training than he ever 
gained, the mental discipline of two more years 
under such masters in such studies could not 
be replaced by any experience in teaching. 
As it was, however, the year spent at Andover 
Seminary was invaluable. His studies under 
Moses Stuart did far more for him than simply 



HOME AND STUDENT LIFE. 29 

to qualify him in exegesis for his future study 
of the Bible. They brought him under the edu- 
cating influence of a teacher who quickened and 
moulded his whole mental development. It 
gave him the highest ideal of a teacher. It 
tended largely to make of Dr. Wayland the 
princely teacher he was in subsequent years in 
Brown University. It endowed him with the 
spirit of fearless investigation, which, truth-lov- 
ing as he was by nature, ruled all his intellec- 
tual conduct. " If I do not err," he said in his 
address at the semi-centennial celebration of 
Andover Seminary, alluding to Professor Stuart, 
" he was one of the most remarkable teachers of 
his age. His acquaintance with his subject in 
the class-room was comi^rehensive and minute. 
There was no sacrifice in his power which he did 
not rejoice to make if by it he could promote the 
progress of his pupils. It seems as if all he 
asked of us was, that we should aid him in his 
efforts to confer on us the largest amount of 
benefit. He allowed and encouraged the largest 
freedom of inquiry in the recitation-room, and 
was never impatient of any question if the ob- 
ject of it was either to elicit truth or to detect 
error. . . . This alone would have been suffi- 
cient to place Moses Stuart in the first class of 
instructors. But to this he added a power of 
arousing enthusiasm such as I have never else- 
where £9en. The living earnestness of his own 



30 FRANCIS WAYLAND . 

spirit kindled to a flame everything that came in 
contact with it." 

The influence of this gifted teacher on him 
must be distinctly recognized as one of the more 
powerful factors in shaping Dr. Wayland's ca- 
reer as a leader in religious and educational 
movements. While Professor Stuart never had 
under him a pupil more receptive or more gifted, 
it is equally true that Dr. Wayland never could 
have done his work in life but for the training 
he received at the hands of Moses Stuart. 

Nor was this the only debt which Dr. Way- 
land owed to his Andover life. His natural bent 
was averse from all narrowness. He never could 
have been a party man under any circumstances. 
His love of broad and generous views was innate. 
He was catholic in his sympathies. But the 
warm reception, the delicate kindness received 
at the hands of his Andover friends among the 
Congregationalists, intensified his own catholic- 
ity. His student life at Andover left him none 
the less a Baptist. But his associations at An- 
dover Seminary and Union College with Chris- 
tians of different communions were such that 
they educated in him that noble freedom from 
all mere sectarianism, that large, profound sym- 
pathy with his Christian brethren in all denom- 
inations, which was no secondary element in his 
subsequent usefulness. To this, he bears direct 
and graceful testimony in his Reminiscences. 



CHAPTER II. 

TUTORSHIP AT UNION COLLEGE: BOSTON PAS- 
TORATE, 1817-1827. 

To a clergyman who made to him the remark, 
" Wherever I have been, I have always been 
thmking of something else, and preparing for 
another position," Dr. Wayland rejoined, " I 
have gone on just the opposite principle. What- 
ever I was doing, I have always fixed my mind 
on that one thing, and tried not to think of any- 
thing else." In this spirit, he entered on his 
duties as tutor. He was charged in his first 
year with the instruction of the Freshman class 
in the classics. The class was small ; but three 
recitations a day were required. The instruction 
must have been mainly elementary, commentaries 
and lexicons were few. It shows the poverty 
of all such helps that the " library contained not 
even a valuable Greek lexicon, and hardly aaj- 
thing better in Latin." 

In his second year, his duties as instructor 
were much enlarged. In that and subsequent 
years he was called on to teach most of the 
studies in the curriculum, and to instruct all the 



32 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

classes in college. He wrote lectures on rhetoric 
and natural philosophy. The limited resources 
of the institution compelled such a concentration 
of work into the hands of a single teacher. The 
work in any one of these departments was enough 
for one man's powers and time. It marks the 
great advance in our collegiate institutions, that 
no such arrangement would be now tolerated 
for a moment in any well ordered college. For 
Dr. Wayland himself it may have had its advan- 
tages. It was described by himself as " a re- 
view of his college studies." 

Mainly this tutorship was of advantage to 
him as bringing him still more under the influ- 
ence of the president of the college, Dr. Nott. 
The friendship between them was knitted in 
daily intercourse and lasted through life. Dr. 
Wayland was strongly impressed by those quali- 
ties in Dr. Nott which gave him so wide an in- 
fluence. After Professor Stuart, no other man 
had so much to do in moulding the future presi- 
dent of Brown University. The scholarship of 
Professor Stuart, and his unrivaled powers as 
a teacher, found as supplementary elements in 
shaping the career of Dr. Wayland, the large 
sagacity and the practical wisdom of Dr. Nott. 

College friendships are often powerful factors 
in the subsequent life. They furnish influences 
which outlive the instructions of the class-room. 



TUTORSHIP AT UNION COLLEGE. 33 

The attrition of mind upon mind in college- 
days in the case of closely associated friends is 
an education in itself. The inner history of the 
Oxford movement, so deeply affecting* the future 
of the Church of England, can be truly read only 
in the college lives of the remarkable group of 
endeared friends like Keble and Pusey and 
Newman. The college classmates with whom 
Dr. Wayland was brought into relations of in- 
timacy during his tutorship were Benjamin P. 
Wisner, subsequently pastor of the Old South 
Cliurch in Boston ; and Alonzo Potter, afterward 
bishop of the diocese of Pennsylvania. It is 
through the gates of intellectual sympathy that 
often the subtlest influences come upon the soul. 
This sympathy between the three friends was 
perfect. The bond of Christian sympathy also 
existed ; and thus the intellectual and moral 
character of every member of the little group 
was built up in a sort of mental and spiritual 
commonalty. Every one fulfilled a high and 
useful career, and for its fulfillment, the college 
friendship of those days at Union College se- 
cured essential equipment. For Dr. Wayland, 
this tutorship at Union College was a providen- 
tial training for his life-work as an educator. 
It gave him insight into the interior life of a 
college. It disclosed to him existing defects 
in the curriculum of studies. It developed in 



34 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Yam. his natural instincts as a teacher. It re- 
vealed to him the possibilities for good in such 
institutions, as seminaries of Christian educa- 
tion. That he fulfilled well his part in the work 
intrusted to him is evident from the fact that he 
was later in life recalled to an important profes- 
sorship, that of moral philosophy„ 

Meantime his friend Wisner, who had gone 
to Princeton Theological Seminary, was urging 
him to resume theological study at that institu- 
tion. To this, indeed, Dr. Wayland would not 
have been averse. Poverty only stood in the 
way. In a little gathering of theological stu- 
dents in the room of Howard Malcolm, subse- 
quently a distinguished Baptist clergyman, casual 
mention was made by Mr. Wisner and Mr. 
William B. Sprague, afterward so well known as 
Dr. Sprague of Albany, of the rare ability and 
poverty of the tutor in Union College. Mr. 
Malcolm, who had wealth, generously offered to 
advance the means for completing his theological 
education at Princeton. The offer was promptly 
communicated. No reply came for some time. 
At last it was received, and an explanation of 
the delay was given. The letter had been missent 
to Canandaigua. In the interval he had com- 
mitted himself to remaining at Union College. 
" If," Dr. Wayland said in his reply, " the facts 
communicated in your letter had been known a 



TUTORSHIP AT UNION COLLEGE. 35 

few clays sooner, I should by this time have been 
at Princeton." Commenting on the incident 
long afterwards in the Reminiscences, he says, 
" My destiny in life has been materially affected 
by the blunder of a postmaster : and I believe 
that this blunder was directed by infinite wis- 
dom and love. I could not but look upon it as 
a special providence, intimating my duty in a 
manner not to be misunderstood. With this 
event, all my plans for pursuing study at a 
theological seminary ended." He had now en- 
tered upon his fourth year as tutor, — the last 
as it turned out. There was in store for him 
another and very different training for the work 
of the ministry. That it left lasting and bene- 
ficial influences on his character there is no room 
to doubt. He was thrown directly under the in- 
fluence of one of those deej) religious movements 
called " revivals," of which Dr. Asahel Nettleton 
was, humanly speaking, the centre and soul. All 
accounts agree in ascribing to Dr. Nettleton gifts 
of the highest order for such a work. He knew 
just as well how to guard against the abuses of 
" revivalism " as how to gixide its forces. He 
relied on intelligent views of divine truth far 
more than on passionate appeals in his preach- 
ing. He was discreet in his methods, and had 
the power of insight into character, which in his 
private interviews seemed like intuition. The 



36 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

religious awakening under Dr. Nettleton whicli 
had begun in a neighboring town, extended to 
the college. Into its promotion and guidance Dr. 
Wayland threw himself heart and soul. He be- 
came personally acquainted with Dr. Nettleton, — 
was in close intercourse with him. The result 
of participation in this religious work and of his 
intercourse with Dr. Nettleton soon became ap- 
parent. His desire to preach the Gospel of 
Christ was quickened. He at once resolved to 
forego the additional theological training from 
which want of means had debarred him, and to 
begin the work of the ministry with such re- 
sources as he could command. He gave what 
time could be spared from college duties, with 
which he had become familiar, to some special 
preparation for the sacred office. 

This preparation seems to have consisted 
partly in a review of studies commonly pursued 
by candidates for the ministry, partly in the 
construction of sermons under the supervision of 
Dr. Nott. It was made still more practical by 
an exercise of his gifts as a preacher in supply- 
ing " the little church at Burnt Hills, a village 
between Schenectady and Ballston." This hom- 
iletic training was evidently of no mean sort. 
Dr. Nott himself was a preacher of great gifts, 
also a kind and faithful critic. 

Beside the homiletic instruction which he had 



TUTORSHIP AT UNION COLLEGE. 37 

from Dr. Nott, Dr. Wayland gained mucli from 
the exercise of his gifts in out -stations. He 
used both extemporaneous and written dis- 
courses. He " wrote and rewrote with endless 
care and anxiety." This blending of the two 
methods left its mark upon him as a preacher. 
It is doubtful whether, in any of the schools, he 
could have had a better training for the pulpit. 

He had now been four years in Union Col- 
lege as a tutor. As his mind was made up to 
enter on the work of the Christian ministry, 
there was no inducement for him to continue in 
his tutorial office. He announced his purpose 
of resigning it at the close of the academic year. 
The question before him was what should be 
the field of his future labor as a preacher. His 
attention was first drawn to the West, which 
then meant nothing beyond the Mississippi, and 
little beyond Lake Erie. But Providence had 
chosen for him an eastern field. 

His friends had not forgotten him. Dr. 
Wisner had been called to Boston as pastor of 
the Old South Church. It happened that the 
First Baptist Church of that city was without a 
pastor. Dr. Wisner urged upon the church of- 
ficers the consideration of his friend Wayland 
for the place. That church had enjoyed the 
ministrations of a succession of gifted preach- 
ers, notablv those of the Rev. Dr. Stillman. Not 



38 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

unnaturally, therefore, their aim was high in 
the choice of a pastor. Making all abatements 
for an overweening sense of the importance 
of the position, it was evident that none but a 
man of strength and tact could fill it. Dr. Wis- 
ner's commendation of his friend was listened 
to favorably. An invitation was sent to the 
young preacher, asking him to visit the church 
and preach to them for a season. This invitation 
was accepted, and in the spring vacation of that 
year, 1821, he came to Boston taking with him 
eight sermons, the product of his winter's toil 
in sermon writing. The eight sermons were 
preached on four successive Sundays. He had 
interviews with the leading members of the 
church, who were men of sound discernment, calm 
judgment, and influential character. Theolog- 
ical matters were freely discussed. It seems to 
have been a sort of theological examination to 
which Dr. Wayland in no wise objected. There 
was hesitation, however, as to extending an im- 
mediate call. A second visit was proposed by 
some. This he promptly declined. The wiser 
heads then brought the matter to an issue. 
It resulted in a call to become the pastor, not, 
indeed, by any means unanimous. He had se- 
cured, fortunately, the support of the influential 
men. The minority were in favor of a candi- 
date with more popular gifts. 



BOSTOy PASTORATE. 39 

His friends, Dr. Nott and Professor Stuart, 
treated this, however, as a matter of slight con- 
sequence. They had taken his measure and they 
were sure of his ultimate success. Professor 
Stuart urged his acceptance on broader grounds 
than simply the building up of the decadent 
church. " The cause here," he wrote, " abso- 
lutely and imperiously demands a man like you, 
who has depth of exegetical lore, who can meet 
the Unitarians on ground where he is unlikely 
to feel his inferiority, or be put to the blush. 
Besides Providence College [Brown University] 
must have such trustees, or it is ruined forever. 
Radical changes must be made in order to save 
it. You want more weight, more literature here, 
to do this." 

Under the advice of these friends, and rely- 
ing on the wisdom and fidelity of those who had 
called him, and who never afterward failed him, 
the call was accepted. At the close of the college 
year he came to Boston ; was ordained pastor 
August 21, 1821. The text of Dr. Sharp's ser- 
mon at his ordination was felicitously chosen, — 
1 Cor. xvi. 10 : " Now if Timotheus come, see 
that he may be with you without fear : for he 
worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do." 
The problem of success in the new field had its 
dark side. In eastern Massachusetts, Unitari- 
anism had gained great headway, through legal 



40 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

decisions of the courts, througli the controlling 
influence of Harvard College, and through the 
power of wealth and social influence combined. 
In Boston its influence was predominant. All 
the older Congregational churches save the Old 
South had become Unitarian. Congregationalism 
was struggling hard to recover its lost ground, 
and waxed valiant in fight. Besides its churches 
there were but three Episcopal, two Methodist, 
and three Baptist churches, who represented the 
ancient faith. The pulpits of the Unitarian 
churches were all in the hands of able men, 
gifted preachers and scholars of high reputation, 
while the congregations which filled them on 
every Sabbath were composed of all, or nearly 
all, the wealthier and more cultivated classes in 
the town, then having a population of over forty 
thousand inhabitants. 

The church to which he had been called was 
not in some respects an inviting field of labor. 
Its house of worship was unattractive in archi- 
tecture, and, being at the North End, was iU 
situated. The population had begun to drift 
away to more attractive parts of the city. The 
congregation had lessened in numbers, and its 
harmony was disturbed. The minority, opposed 
to calling Dr. Wayland, were not disposed to 
heed the teachings of Dr. Sharp in the ordina- 
tion sermon. They adopted more than ques- 



BOSTON PASTORATE. 41 

tionable methods of attack on the new ministry. 
Anonymous letters were sent to the pastor. 
Some forsook attendance on his ministry, trav- 
eling some miles out of town to hear the man 
preach on whom they had set their hearts. It 
would be difficult to find an instance where min- 
isterial success was achieved in the face of 
greater obstacles. Dr. Wayland met them with 
the practical wisdom which was a leading trait 
of his mind. Anonymous letters were quickly 
burned and forgotten. When it was proposed 
at one of the church meetings to discipline those 
members who had forsaken his ministry for at- 
tendance elsewhere. Dr. Wayland firmly opposed 
all such measures, and offered to facilitate the 
attendance of the poorer members elsewhere 
if they desired it, by providing carriages for 
them, his own purse to contribute toward the 
expense. He refused to be told who were the 
dissentients. One of them he saved from fail- 
ure in business, by interposing in his behalf 
with a principal creditor. When discipline was 
necessary, it was administered in the tenderesfc 
and calmest spirit. He was skillful in his jvidg- 
ment as to measures, and accurate in that as 
to men. He sought and followed the advice of 
such men as Dr. Baldwin and Dr. Sharp. He 
sought also to promote fraternal union among 
the Baptist churches. His relations with the 



42 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Unitarian churches were friendly, for he had been 
wise enough to engage in no doctrinal crusade 
against them, preaching positive truth as he held 
it, and not controversial discourses. Some of 
his best friends and sincerest admirers were 
found among the clergy and laity of that body. 

The pulpit was, however, his main reliance for 
ultimate success. He was sedulous in discharg- 
ing pastoral duties. They came hard to him. 
He was wanting in the facility of social inter- 
course which makes pastoral visitation easy. He 
was more at home in his study and among his 
books. He thus held on the even tenor of his 
way, gaining slowly, at times much depressed for 
want of more rapid and visible progress. The 
early years of that Boston pastorate found this 
problem still a problem. It had not been 
wholly solved. Thus passed the first two years 
of his ministry in Boston. 

Labors outside his parish cares soon began to 
be thrust upon him. At a very early period 
his ministerial brethren recognized the ability in 
him to lead his denomination along its chosen 
lines of advance. In 1823, he was appointed an 
associate editor of the " American Baptist Maga- 
zine," a bimonthly, of which Dr. Thomas Bald- 
win was editor in chief, and of which Dr. Way- 
land, on the death of Dr. Baldwin, assumed the 
sole charge. The principal aim of the magazine 



BOSTON PASTORATE. 43 

was to diffuse missionary intelligence among the 
Baptist churches, both as to the foreign and 
home fields. But along with this were original 
articles discussing the subjects of denominational 
interest. It held the same position among the 
Baptists that the " Panoplist " did among the 
Congregationalists. The need of information re- 
garding missionary efforts was, in the infancy of 
foreign missions, if possible, of greater urgency 
than now. This editorship of the " Baptist 
Magazine " is the earliest public evidence of Dr. 
Wayland's undying interest in the subject. It 
had. been kindled at his mother's knee. It grew 
throughout the whole course of his life. There 
was one series of articles written by him for the 
magazine which deserves notice as showing the 
changed opinions of his later years. " I am 
built railroad fashion," he was wont to say. " I 
can go forward if necessary, and if necessary I 
can take the back track — but I cannot go side- 
ways." After discussing the general subject of 
associations, their province, their ends, and their 
defects, he proceeded to advocate a federation of 
the associations into a general convention. " The 
associations in one State could easily send dele- 
gates to a state convention. This would em- 
body all the information and concentrate the 
energies of a State. These state conventions 
could send delegates to a general convention, and 



44 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

thus the whole denomination might be brought 
into concentrated and united action." By a 
system of delegates and correspondence he 
thought " the Baptists on both sides the Atlantic 
would be united in a solid phalanx." 

He abandoned these views wholly. In his 
" Notes on the Principles and Practice of Bap- 
tist Churches," he has stated his change of view 
with unreserved freedom.^ After reviewing the 
history of the movement, he adds these words, 
" I now rejoice exceedingly that the whole plan 
failed, and that it failed through the sturdy com- 
mon sense of the masses of our brethren." 

He was now to render a far more important 
service to the Baptist churches, and indeed to 
Christendom, than that of conducting any publi- 
cation of missionary intelligence. His editorial 
labors had inspired and qualified him for the 
task before him. When he entered upon it he 
did not foresee the great issue in missionary re- 
sults he was set in the providence of God to 
meet. " He builded better than he knew." 

He had been chosen to preach the annual ser- 
mon before the Baptist Foreign Missionary So- 
ciety of Boston. The custom had been fruitful 
of good results, but hitherto these results were 
mainly local and temporary. The audience 
gathered on such occasions was composed mainly 

1 Section 31, p. 183. 



BOSTON PASTORATE. 46 

of attendants upon the three Baptist churches of 
the city, with such others as the special service 
might tempt or the preacher attract. No one 
dreamed that the coming sermon was to have 
the Christian world for its autlience, and mark 
an epoch in the progress of missionary effort. 

The evening came for its delivery ; the even- 
ing of Sunday, October 26, 1823. It was rainy 
and cold. The northeast wind of the New Eng- 
land coast seemed to chill the small audience 
that found its way through the storm to the 
meeting-house of the First Baptist Church. It 
chilled also the preacher, who wore his great coat 
through the service. Without and within the 
atmosphere was depressing. " His manner in 
the pulpit was unattractive ; he was tall, lean, 
angular, spoke with but little action, rarely with- 
drawing his hands from his pockets, save to turn 
a leaf, his eye seldom meeting the sympathetic 
eye of the audience." So his biographers have 
described his ordinary appearance and manner 
in the pulpit. The majestic personal presence 
of later years had not then been reached. 

The appointment had to be met, the duty gone 
through with. And so the preacher rose, read 
the text, Matthew xiii. 38, "The field is the 
world," announced his theme to be the "Moral 
Dignity of the Missionary Enterprise," deliv- 
ered the sermon, dismissed the audience, and 



46 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

went to his home utterly depressed at what 
seemed to him a dead failure. On the morning 
following he said to a friend, " It was a com- 
plete failure. It fell perfectly dead." 

It is impossible to understand the seo|)e, the 
bearing, and the ultimate impression made by 
this discourse, unless the condition of the mis- 
sionary enterprise at that date be considered. 
It had been lighting its way for a quarter of a 
century to the confidence of the churches and of 
the community. Public opinion had to be con- 
verted to its favor. That had assumed a per- 
manent antagonism, which found expression and 
countenance in Sydney Smith's sharp attack on 
Missions, in the " Edinburgh Review," as endan- 
gering the lives of all who went on them, as in 
fact wanton and wicked waste. One of the direc- 
tors of the East India Company, when the ques- 
tion of permitting Christian missionaries to enter 
their domain came up, said, " He would see a band 
of devils let loose in India, rather than a band of 
missionaries." Statesmen like Fox uttered pub- 
lic disapproval of missionary effort.^ Only ten 
years before the delivery of this discourse the 
Massachusetts legislature had refused to grant 
a charter to the American Board of Commis- 
sioners for Foreign Missions. Men of high posi- 

^ Lectures on Baptist History, pp. 300, 301, by William R. 
Williams. 



BOSTON PASTORATE. 47 

tion opposed tlie application stubbornly. It was 
at last obtained only by the persistent efforts of 
its frieuds.^ Nor had the opposition died away. 
The passage in the introductory part of the ser- 
mon alluding" to this fact must be kept in mind, 
if the aim and the success of the discourse are 
to be rightly judged. 

After an allusion to the prevalent apathy in 
regard to the work of evangelizing the world, 
Dr. Wayland proceeded to say : " The reason 
for all this we shall not on this occasion pretend 
to assign. We have time only to express our 
regret that such should be the fact. Confining 
ourselves, therefore, to the bearing which this 
moral bias has upon the missionary cause, it is 
with pain we are obliged to believe that there is 
alarge and most J^esjjectable portion of our f el- 
low-citizens ^ for many of whom we entertain 
every sentiment of 2^&^'Sonal esteem, and to 
whose opinions on most other subjects loe hoio 
with unfeigned deference, who look with perfect 
apathy wpon the present system of exertions for 
evangelizing the heathen ; and we have been 
greatly misinformed if there be not another, 
though a very different, class, who consider 
these exertions a subject for ridicule.'^ Perhaps 
it may tend somewhat to arouse the apathy of 

1 Memorial Volume A. B. C. F. M., chap. 3, pp. 71-78. 
'^ The italics are ours. 



48 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

the one party, as well as to moderate the con- 
tempt of the other, if we can show that this very- 
missionary cause combines within itself the ele- 
ments of all that is sublime in human purpose. 
Nay, combines them in a loftier pro]3ortion than 
any other enterprise which was ever linked with 
the destinies of man." 

The passage italicized is the key to this dis- 
course. Viewed thus, it is adapted to its pur- 
pose with consummate skill. The ornate style, 
the march of its thought, the vividness of its 
pictures, the solemn eloquence of its periods, 
the depth and strength of its doctrinal views, are 
all combined to make a single, clear, and over- 
whelming impression, and that, the theme as an- 
nounced, the moral dignity of the missionary 
enterprise. It was composed in a single week, 
and once rewritten, — two other sermons having 
been written the same week. But it would be a 
great mistake to infer that it was not the growth 
of much thought. It gathered up the impressions 
accumulating through years. The sources of 
its cogent eloquence are to be found in that early 
interest for the advancement of the kingdom of 
God, inspired by his mother ; " in the admiring 
love for the missionary schemes, inspired in him 
by the eloquence of Luther Rice ; in the many 
walks to South Troy, as he sought to gain some- 
thing which he might offer to the cause of the 



BOSTON PASTORATE. 49 

Redeemer ; in the religious fervor kindled anew 
by Asahel Nettleton ; in the stirring news from 
all parts of the mission field which passed be- 
fore his eyes as editor of the ' Baptist Magazine,' 
and especially in the glowing letters by which 
Judson pleaded with Christendom in behalf of 
the millions of heathenism, and in the presence 
of that noblest of American women, the wife of 
Judson, whose tireless energy and feminine fas- 
cination inspired by a holy cause and a divine 
love had kindled in him a sympathetic fervor, 
and whose well-remembered face and 'heaven- 
directed eye ' lent inspiration as he wrote." ^ 

The preacher was mistaken. The sermon had 
not fallen dead. Small as the audience was, 
there were some discerning hearers who knew 
what the pregnant sentences meant, that they 
were words for the hour and met a solemn exi- 
gency in the progress of missionary work. It 
was therefore published. The response was im- 
mediate. The impression made by the discourse 
in print upon the Christian public was profound. 
The American Tract Society enrolled it among 
their permanent publications. A year or two 
later it was republished in England with a com- 
mendatory paper, by Dr. Ralph Wardlaw, and 
in England, as in America, stimulated the zeal, 
raised the courage, and broadened the views 

1 Life of Wayland, vol. i. pp. 169-170. 



50 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

of all friends of the missionary enterprise. It 
was translated into continental tongues, and did 
its work there as in England. No more sneers 
at missionary effort were uttered, at least by 
Christian ministers like Sydney Smith. No 
more apologies were made for undertaking a 
really heroic work. Christian missions needed 
a defense. It had been fully given, A half 
century later. Max Miiller, in the nave of West- 
minster Abbey, gave a lecture on missions, which 
in tone is identical with that of Dr. Wayland's 
Missionary Discourse. 

Eighteen months later he preached two ser- 
mons on the Duties of an American Citizen, 
which at once attracted attention. The first dis- 
cussed "the present intellectual and jDolitical 
condition of the nations of Europe ; " the sec- 
ond, " the relation which this country sustains 
to the nations of Europe." Both exemplify 
the broad, generalizing habit of his mind in 
dealing with political questions from the reli- 
gious standpoint. Both show his watchfulness 
as an observer of events at home and abroad, 
and his intense love of civil and religious free- 
dom. In the conclusion of the second, he al- 
luded to the probability that " some of [those] 
who now hear me will see fifty millions of souls 
enrolled on the census of these United States." 
It was a bold prophecy, but more than fulfilled. 



BOSTON PASTORATE. 51 

Two master passions controlled Dr. Waylancl's 
life : one was love for the kingdom of Christ, 
the other was zeal for humane effort. His reli- 
gion was broadened by his philanthropy, and 
his philanthropy was inspired and trained by his 
religion. If the Missionary Discourse exhibits 
in its full play the first of these passions, the 
sermons on the Duties of an American Citizen 
exhibit the second, with equal felicity of argu- 
ment, equal vividness of illustration, and possi- 
bly with a higher stamp of oratory. 

The publication of these discourses fixed at 
once Dr. Wayland's position. They gave him a 
name abroad as well as at home. Not yet thirty 
years of age, he had gained his place as the 
leading Baptist divine of this country. His fel- 
low-Christians of other communions hailed him 
as a leader in religious thought and activity. 
His voice was now to be heard on all public ques- 
tions affecting the interests of his denomination, 
and soon on the broader arena of education and 
philanthropy. His growing reputation made him 
an influential member of committees and con- 
ventions. This work engrossed his time and 
diverted him from studies in which he was in- 
terested. He subsequently deplored this as so 
much distraction from the higher pastoral work. 
It seems, withal, the necessary incident to such 
positions as he was holding, and is not without 



62 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

compensating advantages in practical training, 
besides on some occasions giving opportunities 
of very valuable service. A signal instance of 
this, in tlie case of Dr. Wayland, is found in his 
rescue of the Triennial Convention from what 
seemed a fatal divergence from its original plan 
and purpose. This body had been founded in 
1814 for a single object, — sending the gospel to 
the heathen. It was a representative assembly, 
composed " not of representatives of churches 
as such, but of representatives chosen by the 
contributors to foreign missions." 

Soon, however, educational projects were in- 
corporated into its scheme. In 1817, it was 
voted to " institute a classical and theological 
seminary, " which was established at Philadel- 
phia. Next, in 1821, Columbian College was 
founded in Washington, D. C. Matters went so 
far in this direction that it was voted to " loan 
ten thousand dollars from the mission funds to 
assist in the erection of the Columbian College." 

At this stage, the friends of foreign missions, 
Dr. Wayland prominently among them, were 
roused by what seemed to them an endangering 
of the great missionary movement by diversion 
of interest from it. A report on the whole 
subject, prepared by Dr. Wayland, and found 
among his papers, shows him resolute and armed 
against the project. At the meeting of the 



BOSTON PASTORATE. 53 

Triennial Convention held in New York city in 
1826, he was present as a delegate. The sub- 
ject was fully canvassed in a strong debate. In 
that debate he took a leading part. As the 
author of the great missionary sermon his coun- 
sels would have carried weight. But his ability 
in debate, his " cool, conclusive reasonings," to 
quote the language of Dr. Baron Stow, and his 
eminent fairness of mind, brought back the con- 
vention to its original purpose. Young as he 
was, he was looked up to as a sagacious and safe 
leader in ecclesiastical affairs. He was gaining 
in point of influence by his participation in such 
labors all, and more than all, he was losing in 
the acquisitions of his study. 

The ministry in Boston continued till the sum- 
mer of 1826. It was hard, uphill work. Not- 
withstanding the reputation he had gained, and 
despite his unremitting and devoted toils in the 
pulpit and in the parish, there was no marked 
growth in the congregation to which he was 
ministering. His churcli was badly located. 
" Downtown churches, " then as now, contend 
against great odds. He proposed its removal to 
a more attractive site, with a new church edi- 
fice. The project of removal met with no i^e- 
sponse. He had been married in the year 
previous (1825) to Miss Lucy L. Lincoln, and 
was living on a very meagre salary. There was 



64 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

no prospect of any increase. The outside cares, 
apart from his proper parish work, were en- 
grossing and exhausting. Though he was deeply 
attached to his people, and his people were 
equally attached to him, he had evidently 
reached a point where other openings for work 
would be considered if they presented them- 
selves. 

When, therefore, in the spring of 1826, his 
friend Dr. Nott wrote, asking whether he would 
accept the professorship in Union College made 
vacant by the resignation of Dr. Alonzo Potter, 
he was in a mood to consider the matter favor- 
ably. After some deliberation, he decided to 
accept the appointment, and at the monthly 
meeting of the church, in July, he resigned the 
pastoral charge. In his Reminiscences, Dr. 
Wayland made the following comments upon 
this important step in his career. It was a 
turning-point in his life. He had been in un- 
conscious training for a post very different in 
its labors, but for which such a training was 
a solid and valuable equipment. It is evident 
that he looked back upon the scene of his early 
pastoral labors with the changed vision of years. 
But the heart of a Christian pastor beat in that 
sturdy bosom to its last throb. 

" When I resigned my place, it was a matter 
of great surprise, and I believe of sincere pain. 



BOSTON PASTORATE. 55 

to my people. I found that they loved me much 
better than I had supposed ; indeed had I known, 
before I was pledged, how sincerely they were 
attached to me, I think I should never have left 
them. This attachment has continued to the 
present day. No member of that church or con- 
gregation, now after thirty-five years, ever meets 
me without the most affectionate recognition, 
and none love me more than those who at first 
bitterly opposed me. I was settled in Boston 
for five years. I did not then understand the 
value of the element of time in producing re- 
sults. I supposed that changes might be effected 
more rapidly than was actually possible. I also 
underrated the effects which had been produced. 
Many persons, comparing the condition of the 
church when I left them with its condition when 
I entei'ed on my ministry, considered my labors 
more than commonly useful." 

Dr. Wayland's estimate of his Boston ministry 
as given in the Reminiscences is not favorable. 
His criticism of it is both severe and sweeping. 
He condemns his manner of preaching, " read- 
ing his sermons rather than preaching without 
manuscript." He calls it the " great error of 
[his] life as a preacher." He condemns also his 
sermons, as lacking in the simple and homely 
address essential to true popular effect, and as 
constructed too much on lines of an ambitious. 



56 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

intellectual display. He was equally severe as a 
critic upon his pastoral work. " I also erred, 
during my ministry, in respect to visiting my 
people. From tlie amount of outdoor religious 
business, I had but scant time for this duty, es- 
pecially during the last part of my settlement. . . . 
I also erred in the manner of it. I did not deal 
faithfully enough with my people." He expresses 
very keen regrets over his absorjDtion in eccle- 
siastical matters outside his parish work, espe- 
cially his labors in connection with the "Tri- 
ennial Convention, the State Convention, and 
the Magazine." 

Such a review of his Boston pastorate is too 
disparaging. As to the "written" sermons, 
and " reading " them instead of extempore dis- 
course, it is very questionable whether Dr. Way- 
land could ever have influenced an audience 
more by the exchange of method. As to his 
pastoral work, surely the pastor who could recall 
" edifying religious conversation with members 
of [his] church over the wash-tub" has not much 
to reproach himself with in the line of duty. 
As to the outside labors with all their time-ab- 
sorbing demands, he should have remembered 
that the First Baptist Chui*ch in Boston was 
made for the kingdom of God, and not the king- 
dom of God for the First Baptist Church of 
Boston. He was marked by the finger of God's 



BOSTON PASTORATE. 57 

Providence foi' a public man, a leader of the 
people. The Divine Providence, which never 
puts an untrained instrument to do the work of 
a Moses or a John the Baptist, gave him his 
training very largely in the labors outside the 
parish visitations, in the chair of the editor, in 
the sessions of committees, and in the debates 
of conventions. 

In his " Letters on the Ministry of the Gos- 
pel," Dr. Wayland accents the criticism on his 
Boston pastorate still more strongly.^ No one 
will for a moment question his absolute sincer- 
ity. It only indicates that his ideal of the min- 
istry became higher and higher the more he 
studied the workings of our actual Christianity. 
There were no such criticisms passed by others 
upon his ministerial career. The Boston minis- 
try was begun under very great difficulties in the 
face of considerable opposition. It had ended 
for him in an assured and advancing reputation 
as a preacher of the gospel, in a sound if not 
brilliant success in building up the church under 
his care, in a united and working parish. 

In the same work,^ Dr. Wayland says "in ex- 
changing the ministry for the work of educa- 
tion, though I acted with the sanction of all my 
brethren, I think, I erred." It would be useless 

1 Letter X., p. 197 et seq. 

2 Letters on the Christian Ministry, p. 201. 



58 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

to speculate on what he might have done had he 
remained in his Boston pulpit, or if he had " soon 
returned to the ministry to commence it under 
different auspices." ^ That he would have been 
an eminent and eminently faithful preacher and 
pastor is clear. That he would have been a wise 
and capable denominational leader is manifest. 
But the currents of his life were to flow in dif- 
ferent channels. He did not know then that 
Divine Providence intended his main work to 
be on wholly different lines, nor that when he 
started for Schenectady, he took the first step in 
the new direction. He went to Union College in 
September, 1826, leaving for a time his family 
in Boston. He entered at once on his office as 
Professor of Moral Philosophy, temporarily also 
filling the chair of Mathematics and that of Nat- 
ural Philosophy, His work opened pleasantly. 
He resumed his former occupation as teacher 
with ease and readiness. Here, in his old home, 
amid endeared and cherished relations, especially 
with Dr. Nott, the president, the city pastor was 
merging into the college professor. But before 
he had been fairly launched in the new career, 
Dr. Messer resigned the Presidency of Brown 
University. 

. ^ Letters on the Christian Ministry, p. 200. 



CHAPTER III. 

PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 

1827-1840. 

Brown University, Providence, Rhode Isl- 
and, was founded in 1764. Its original corpo- 
rate name was " The Trustees and Fellows of 
the College or University in the English Colony 
of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 
New England in America*" That name in 1804 
was changed to Brown University, in recognition 
of the munificent gifts to the college from Nicho- 
las Brown. While the charter provided that the 
President " sliall forever be of the denomination 
called Baptists or Anti-paedobaptists," it also 
provided in its government for a minority repre- 
sentation of other religious bodies ; in the Board 
of Trustees, for five Friends or Quakers, four 
Congregationalists, five Episcopalians, the re- 
maining twenty-two " forever [to be] elected of 
the denomination called Baptists or Anti-paedo- 
baptists. In the Board of Fellows, it provided 
for eight Baptists, and the remaining four " in- 
differently of any or all denominations." 

The charter also enacted and provided " That 



60 FRANCJS WAYLAND. 

into this liberal and catholic institution shall 
never be admitted any religious tests : But, on 
the contrary all the members hereof shall for- 
ever enjoy full, free, absolute, and uninterrupted 
liberty of conscience ; And that the place of 
Professors, Tutors, and all other offices, the 
President alone excepted, shall be free and open 
for all denominations of Protestants. And that 
youth of all religious denominations shall and 
may be freely admitted to the equal advantages, 
emoluments, and honors of the College or Uni- 
versity." This charter has been fitly character- 
ized by Professor Kingsley,^ as " undoubtedly in 
many respects one of *the best college charters 
in New England," and the institution has 
throughout its history deserved the name of a 
"catholic, comprehensive, and liberal institu- 
tion." 2 

In the Reminiscences, Dr. Wayland mentions 
that " about the time of my leaving Boston, Dr. 
Messer, the President of Brown University, was 
on the point of resigning. I had been urged to 
become a candidate for the office. My friends in 
the vicinity of Boston, especially Dr. Sharp and 
Dr. Bolles, pressed it. In the course of the au- 
tumn. Dr. Messer resigned. I had now become 
very pleasantly situated at Schenectady. My 
feelings, however, turned toward New England, 

1 Life of Br. Ezra Stiles. ^ Charter. 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 61 

and the hope of doing something for my own de- 
nomination had much weight with me. There 
was some doubt as to the election, as one or two 
candidates beside myself had been presented. I 
had but little anxiety about the result, although 
the uncertainty was annoying." 

He was unanimously chosen President of 
Brown University, December 13, 1826, his dis- 
tinguished predecessors having been James Man- 
ning, Jonathan Maxy, and Asa Messer, all men 
of high endowments and exalted character. To 
preside over an institution so catholic in the tone 
and terms of its charter, was congenial to the 
spirit and training of Dr. Way land. He was 
glad also to identify his fortunes with those of 
a community founded by Roger Williams. None 
more than he reverenced the traditions of Rhode 
Island. Roger Williams' doctrine,^ "not that 
men of various beliefs should be tolerated by 
the civil power, but the far broader and more 
fruitful principle that the civil power has no- 
thing whatever to do with religious belief, save 
when it leads to some actual violation of social 
order," was a doctrine which seemed to Dr. 
Wayland a foundation principle in social struc- 
ture. He was the more ready to take charge of 
the principal Baptist College in the countiy that 
he might do his part in leading his denomination 

^ Discourse on Roger Williams. Professor J. L. Diman. 



62 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

forward in the great educational work then open- 
ing: before the nation.^ Therefore he had no 
hesitation as to accepting the office to which he 
had been called. Resigning, accordingly, the 
chair in Union College, upon whose duties he 
had entered in the autumn of 1826, he began his 
work as President of Brown University at Prov- 
idence in February, 1827. 

It is well worthy of remark that Dr. Wayland 
was called to his post not merely by the suf- 
frages of his own denomination. He was the 
choice of a wider constituency also ; leading Gon- 
gregationalists, like Professor Stuart of Andover, 
earnestly urged his appointment. Prominent 
newspapers in the States of New York, Massachu- 
setts, and Connecticut, all had urged his election. 
They had been impressed with Dr. Wayland's 
ability and catholicity. His successful work as 
a teacher during his four years at Union College, 
and his recent appointment to the chair of Moral 
Philosophy in that institution, gave further basis 
for their opinions of his fitness for the place. 

1 "At present (1887) "we have nineteen institutions for 
the Colored and Indian races, fourteen seminaries and high 
schools for the coeducation of male and female, twenty-seven 
institutions for female education exclusively, and six theolog- 
ical seminaries for the education of the ministry, making in all 
[colleges included], weak and strong, old and new, an aggregate 
of one hundred and twenty-five institutions [of learning]." — 
Armitage's History of the Baptists, 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 63 

His residence at Andover, so favorably intro- 
ducino^ him to the Conofrecrationalists of Eastern 
Massachusetts, an important constituency of the 
college, was also a preparation for the successful 
incumbency of the position. 

It was a critical period in the history of the in- 
stitution. It had declined in numbers. The re- 
quirements for admission had become very lax. 
There were internal dissensions in the Faculty. 
The discipline of the students was of the looser 
sort. Old and evil customs needed uprooting. 
" A barrel of ale was always kept on tap in the 
cellar, to which all under-graduates had fi'ee ac- 
cess." In fact, the reputation of Brown Univer- 
sity in its own community seems to have been 
at a low ebb. It was evident that reform was 
needed ; reform and also expansion and eleva- 
tion of the course of studies. His first endeavor 
was for reform in discipline. To secure this he 
framed a new set of college laws. He insisted 
upon a more systematic and careful supervision 
of the students' rooms by professors and tutors, 
who were required to occupy apartments in the 
college buildings. He banished from the prem- 
ises all spirituous liquors. He obtained " power 
to send away from college any young man 
whose conduct rendered him an improper asso- 
ciate for his fellow - students, or whose further 
connection with his class could be of no use to 



64 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

himself or his friends. It was understood at 
once that a firm, strong hand was on the helm. 
He wasted no time in compromising expedients. 
He meant to have it distinctly understood that 
college laws must be obeyed; it was made en- 
tirely clear to the under-graduate mind within 
a few months after his accession to the presi- 
dency. The necessary reforms were not carried 
into effect without opposition from without and 
within. This took Dr. Wayland by no surprise. 
His administration was assailed in the news- 
papers. He read them and maintained a wise 
and absolute silence. Fortunately for him the 
senior class responded at once and heartily to 
these efforts to advance the college, morally and 
intellectually.^ The leading members of the col- 
lege corporation agreed with his views and stood 
by him in his efforts to carry them out. And while 
at first the process of growth was not brilliant, 
the first class entering under the new administra- 
tion being much smaller than usual, not more 
than one half the number of the previous year, 
still the friends of the administration were per- 
fectly confident of ultimate success. Meantime, 
Dr. Wayland had begun his labors as a pro- 
fessor. He lectured to the junior and senior 
classes on the elements of Political Economy, 

1 Letter of Hon. John H. Clifford. Life of Francis Wayland, 
vol. i. p. 221. 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 65 

Rhetoric, Intellectual Philosophy and Animal 
Physiology. 

The question of his success in administering 
his office was not long an open one. In two 
years that success was demonstrated. At the 
annual meeting of the college Corporation, Sep- 
tember 30, 1829, he presented a report in behalf 
of the Faculty, surveying the history of the ad- 
ministration during the two preceding years, and 
the working of all changes introduced, propos- 
ing, also, further changes in the abolition of 
long winter vacations. In the report submitted 
to the Corporation the year following, 1830, the 
course of the administration was again reviewed, 
and the progress in moral order and mental dis- 
cipline carefully noted. In little less than three 
years it was evident that a quiet but determined 
revolution had been wrought. In that time Dr. 
Wayland had imbued his colleagues in the Fac- 
ulty, his associates in the Corporation, the body 
of the students, and to a great extent the public, 
with the true spirit of a collegiate system, and 
what is more, with definite and fruitful pur- 
poses of expansion for the university. From that 
time onward for a course of years the college 
grew in numbers, in resources, and in influence. 

Dr. Wayland saw at a glance that no college 
could do its proper work with such a library as 
Brown University then possessed. What books 



66 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

it contained seem to have been kept in " one of 
the projecting rooms of University Hall," and the 
" management of the library," meagre as it was, 
had little or no system. In the report of 1829 
to the Corporation, he drew attention to the 
deficiency, and asked for an annual appropria- 
tion for the purchase of books. This was fol- 
lowed three years later, in the summer of 1832, 
by a meeting of the friends of the college to 
secure a permanent fund for the endowment of 
the library. The efforts to secure this were suc- 
cessful, and a sum collected was put at interest 
until it had increased to twenty-five thousand dol- 
lars. Brown University had, however, no build- 
ing where a library could be properly housed. 
The munificence of Hon. Nicholas Brown fur- 
nished the means for erecting Manning Hall, to 
be used as a library and chapel. There the new 
library was placed, where it remained till its 
growth demanded the new building erected for it 
in recent years. The library of Brov/n Univer- 
sity has no superior for its size. It owes much to 
the labors of Professor Charles C. Jewett ; but 
it must stand as a lasting monument of Dr. 
Wayland's foresight and activity. His belief in 
libraries as a leading agency in education was 
evinced throughout his career. 

He saw also that scientific studies as a part 
of the college curriculum must be given a more 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 67 

prominent place, and facilities for their prosecu- 
tion be provided. His interest in them had been 
kindled in part at least by his own attempts at 
scientific teaching in Union College. He also 
believed • strongly in their disciplinary value. 
Through his influence, and mainly through the 
generosity of Nicholas Brown, Rhode Island 
Hall was erected for the department of Natural 
Philosophy, Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology, 
and Natural History. No college now would 
think of crowding so many departments of sci- 
ence into any one building. But scientific study 
was then in its infancy among American col- 
leges. The provision made for scientific train- 
ing in the erection of Rhode Island Hall, will, if 
compared with the provision made for it at that 
date in other institutions, show that its impor- 
tance was fully and even liberally recognized by 
President Wayland. 

Allusion has been made to his reform of the 
college discipline. All his earlier administration 
was characterized by it. He first of all acknow- 
ledged the obligation laid on him by the char- 
ter of the college for maintenance of sound and 
thorough disciplinary measures, "and above all," 
so the charter enjoined, " a constant regard 
[must] be paid to, and effectual care taken of, 
the morals of the college." The Reminiscences 
furnish his own account of his principles and 



68 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

methods in this department of college adminis- 
tration. The vital importance of the subject, 
the tendency to lower views than his, now some- 
what prevalent, justify an extended presentation 
of his views on the subject. 

" It was . . . my aim to have no laws which 
could not be shown to be perfectly reasonable, 
and then to execute those laws with all possible 
strictness and impartiality.^ 

'' Of course in saying this I assume that it will 
be understood that the government of impulsive, 
thoughtless young men is different from the gov- 
ernment of adults. It must of necessity be kind, 
conciliatory, persuasive, or, in a word, parental. 
Penalty must be visited only after other means 
of restraint and correction have been tried in 
vain. But it must be distinctly understood that 
when these have proved ineffectual, punishment 

1 Dr. Guild, in his volume Manning and Brown University, 
states that the laws in operation for all the earlier history of the 
college were those of the College of New Jersey ' ' somewhat 
modified.' ' These laws imposed on the student fines of four- 
pence for non-attendance on divine service, the same for being 
out of his room on Sunday evenings, five shillings for gam- 
bling, and also for bringing into his room wine, metheglin, or 
any sort of spirituous liquor without a permit from the presi- 
dent or tutors. The last of these laws, number twenty -four, pre- 
scribes that ' ' no member of the college shall wear his hat in the 
college at any time, or appear in the dining-room at meal time, 
or in the hall at any public exercise, or knowingly in the pres- 
ence of the superiority of the college, without an upper gar- 
ment and having shoes and stockings tight. 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 69 

will come, and come on all alike, without the 
shadow of partiality." After alluding to the 
importance of precedent and deUberation in each 
case, he continues : — 

" I know that all this seems easy to be under- 
stood and easy to be accomplished ; and yet it is 
not exactly so. What needs to be done may be 
readily j^erceived. But when the doing of it may 
destroy the prospects of a young man, and scat- 
ter to the winds the long-cherished hopes of 
parents, that measure of discii^line which one 
knows to be right and unavoidable is attended 
with the severest pain. I never attempted an 
important case of discipline without great men- 
tal distress. I took every means possible to es- 
cape it, and to maintain the government without 
harming the young men.^ When, however, all 
other means had been tried and action became 
necessary, I nerved myself to the task. From 
that moment all the distress was over, and I went 
through it so coolly that I believe I acquired the 
reputation of being a stern, unfeeling discipli- 
narian, who was determined to carry out college 
regulations regardless of the pain he caused. In 
this respect I suppose I must be classed among 

^ " He would often remind us [the Faculty] that if it should 
become necessary to send the young man home to his parents, 
he must be able to say that the college had done its best to 
save him." — Professor Gamraell, in Life of Wayland, vol. i. 
p. 293. 



70 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

those unfortunate men who think themselves 
misunderstood." 

On another point Dr. Wayland's views were 
no less pronounced. He held that the student, 
no less than any other man, is amenable to the 
laws of the land ; that when these are broken 
by him, he must be held accountable to the civil 
authorities ; that college officers should not shield 
him " fi'om the consequences of the violation 
of municipal regulations." He held, in fact, 
that it was part of the business of education to 
train students for the duties of citizenship, and 
that the student character and position were 
never to be viewed as exempt from all due legal 
responsibilities. These views of college disci- 
pline are perhaps now regarded as old-fashioned 
and to be supplanted by modern ideas of en- 
larged freedom. They are unquestionably op- 
posed to all theories of self-government. But it 
would be a grossly mistaken view of Dr. Way- 
land's discipline, if it were supposed to be no- 
thing but a rigid system of penalties. He re- 
sorted to all the forces of moral appeal. He 
brought higher motives than simply the terrors 
of suspension or expulsion from college to bear 
on every refractory student. He held firmly to 
the position that moral and mental training must 
go together in order to any culture which can 
stand the tests of actual life. He made so much 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 71 

of discijDline because the lesson of obedience to 
constituted authority is not secondary, but pri- 
mary, in the career of every student. He brought 
to the administration of discipline as much 
thought and conscientious fidelity as that be- 
stowed on class-room work. It had been lodged 
mainly in his hands. This did not mean that 
he took no counsel from his Faculty. He was 
accustomed to seek this, and he had prudent 
advisers in that body. As a result of his wise 
and efficient effoi'ts he was able to report in 
two years, that the " behavior of the young gen- 
tlemen of the college has been, during the past 
year, in the highest degree commendable. Very 
few instances requiring the exercise of discipline 
have occurred." So long as he remained in the 
presidencj^ these views were maintained. No 
remark was oftener quoted by him tlian that of 
Dr. Thomas Arnold : " It is not necessary that 
this should be a school of three hundred or one 
hundred or of fifty boys ; but it is necessary that 
it should be a school of Christian gentlemen." 

So far, indeed, from deposing moral appeals 
from their true place, he in very conspicuous 
and impressive method exalted them. No stu- 
dent of Brown University during his presidency 
but will readily recall those platform addresses 
on occasion of any serious breach of college or- 
der. They formed a notable characteristic of 



72 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Dr. Wayland. Most graphically have they been 
portrayed by Professor George I. Chase in his 
Memorial Address. Every graduate of Brown 
University who ever heard one of them will bear 
witness to the fidelity and impressiveness of the 
picture. 

" They were most frequent and most charac- 
teristic in the earlier days of his presidency. 
They occurred, usually, immediately after even- 
ing prayers, and took the place of the under- 
graduate speaking, which at that time formed 
part of the daily college programme. The inci- 
dents which called them forth were some irreg- 
ularities, or accident or event, which seemed to 
render proper the application of the moral lever 
to raise the standard of scholarship or character. 
We all knew very well when to expect them. 

" As the students then, with few exceptions, 
lived within the college buildings, and took their 
meals in Commons Hall, they constituted, much 
more than at present, a community by themselves. 
When gathered in the chapel, they formed a 
unique but remarkably homogeneous audience. 
President Wayland was at that time in the very 
culmination of his powers, both physical and in- 
tellectual. His massive and stalwart form, not 
yet filled and rounded out by the accretions of 
later years, his strongly-marked features having 
still the sharp outlines and severe grace of their 



PREISIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 73 

first chiseling, his piercing eye sending from 
beneath that Olympian brow its lordly or its 
penetrating glances, he seemed, as he stood on 
that stage in the old chapel, the incarnation of 
majesty and power. He was raised a few feet 
above his audience, and so near to them that 
those most remote could see the play of every 
feature. He commenced speaking. It was not 
instruction ; it was not argument ; it was not 
exhortation. It was a mixture of wit and hu- 
mor, of ridicule, sarcasm, pathos, and fun ; of 
passionate remonstrance, earnest aj)peal and 
solemn warning, poured forth not at random, but 
with a knowledge of the law of emotion, to which 
Lord Karnes himself could have added nothing. 
The effect was indescribable." 

Of his relations to the student in the class- 
room, mention will be made elsewhere. But his 
relations to his colleagues in the Faculty were 
as close and kindly as it is possible for such to 
be. The success of any administration turns 
largely upon this. Nothing better tests the na- 
tive qualities of leadership than such a post. 
The art cannot be acquired. It is born in the 
man. And it was easily seen that Dr. Way- 
land was a born leader. His strong and clear 
judgment inspired the confidence of his sub- 
ordinates, whom, indeed, he treated as his as- 
sociates. His contagious earnestness, his labo- 



74 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

rious fidelity as a college officer, brought up all 
his colleagues to his own standard. He had able 
coadjutors. They caught his spirit and wrought 
under him with a will. 

One of the first reforms he introduced was in 
the Faculty itself. On assuming charge of the 
institution he found that " several gentlemen 
had performed some service [in teaching] at the 
same time that they lived at home and were 
engaged in other vocations, while they received 
nearly as lai'ge compensation as those whose 
whole time was devoted to instruction." He 
changed all this. He insisted that " every mem- 
ber of the Faculty shall devote his whole time 
to instruction." It was a necessary demand if 
the college was to be lifted into any position 
of influence. He surrounded himself with a 
small band of teachers, — some of them young 
men, — fully imbued with his own spirit and 
eagerly seconding his efforts. Such names as 
those of Professors Goddard, Caswell, Chase, and 
Gammell, among the departed, and of Profes- 
sor Lincoln, still among the living, are names 
of men without whose aid Dr. Way land's career 
could not have been possible. It may be said 
that in a college, as in an army, while most de- 
pends on the commander-in-chief, much depends 
on his ability to inspire subordinates in command 
with his own aims. If there be dissensions be- 



PREHIDKNCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 75 

tween the President and his Faculty, sooner or 
later the bad results appear. If there be too 
wide a gap between the head of instruction and 
those who follow, if less apparent, the results 
are still unhappy. It may be said with perfect 
truth that the relations between Dr. Wayland 
and his Faculty were a model of such connec- 
tions. The professors were put on a footing of 
personal friendship. They were confided in so 
far as they proved themselves worthy of confi- 
dence. He was fond of recalling the dialogue 
between George the Third and the elder Pitt : 
" Sire, give me your confidence, and I will de- 
serve it." "Mr. Pitt, deserve my confidence, 
and you shall have it." Quoting this in a letter, 
he adds, "The king had the best of it." He 
cherished close social relations with his Faculty. 
His house was always open to them. They were 
welcome guests at his hospitable table. He 
sought their society. What his society did for 
them is well set forth in the following testimony 
from the late Professor Gammell. 

" He was exceedingly fond of walking in the 
country, always seeking companionship on such 
occasions. The evening prayers of the college, 
until they were abolished in 1850, were invaria- 
bly at five o'clock. On the dismissal of the stu- 
dents, he would very commonly summon some few 
to join him in his walk to the Seekonk River. . . . 



76 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

This had always been the favorite walk of aca- 
demics, both young and old, and the banks of 
the Seekonk are associated with the college 
memories of every generation of students. . . . 

" In these walks, which were continued through 
many years, he would often do all the talking 
himself, esjDecially when accompanied only by his 
juniors, sometimes on a question suggested by 
his companions, sometimes opening the results of 
his own recent reading, or perhaps recalling, in 
connection with "the public incidents of the town, 
anecdotes, stories, and reminiscences of well- 
known characters, with which his mind was 
largely stored." 

It was largely through this close, personal as- 
sociation that he succeeded in imbuing his col- 
leagues with his own fine enthusiasm for teach- 
ing. In later years there was less of this per- 
sonal intercourse. But his earlier administra- 
tion was marked by this cultivation of generous 
friendship with the professor in his Faculty. 

In addition to all these labors of administra- 
tion and teaching with which the earlier years 
of his presidency were crowded, there were 
others not less engrossing. He at once began 
the preparation of those text -books on moral 
science and political economy, which gave him 
so wide a reputation. Besides this, Dr. Way- 
land became a public man almost from the be- 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 11 

ginning of his presidency. If any important 
public movement were to be undertaken in the 
city of Providence, or in the State of Rhode 
Island, he was chosen to promote it by an ad- 
dress. His reputation as a preacher caused him 
to be sought outside these limits, in neighboring 
cities, to preach ordination sermons, to give an- 
niversary discourses, to lead new efforts in edu- 
cation, in reform, in humane enterprise. These 
calls, which he generally responded to, added 
greatly to his labors. But he recognized in 
them one form of usefulness, and it was not in 
him to live apart from such movements, what- 
ever may have been his habit as a recluse in 
ordinary social life. 

In 1827, he laid before the General Assembly 
of Rhode Island a plan for organizing a system 
of free schools throughout the State, which in 
the year following was adopted by the legisla- 
ture. He was made chairman of a committee of 
citizens of Providence in 1828, " to which was 
referred the consideration of the first school sys- 
tem of the town of Providence. The report of 
this committee, prepared by Dr. Wayland, was 
printed in the " American Journal of Education " 
for July, 1828. This report took a wi^le range 
of discussion, embracing such topics as the kind 
of schools demanded when supported from taxes, 
the subject of graded schools, the proper methods 



78 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

of common school instruction, the text -books 
which should be used, and the need of competent 
supervision. The plan of the report also was car- 
ried into effect in the city schools. On August 19, 
1830, when the committee of teachers and other 
friends of education assembled to form the Amer- 
ican Institute of Instruction, he was chosen its 
first president, delivering on the occasion an ad- 
dress, subsequently published in the Volume of 
Discourses. He gave also an address at the 
opening of the Providence Athenaeum, in which 
he enthusiastically commends such public libra- 
ries as the true means for popular education, and 
as meeting the crisis in the progress of civiliza- 
tion which demands a popular enlightenment. 
Such an institution as the Boston Public Libraiy 
was then unknown. Its humble predecessors ex- 
isted here and there. He took the highest 
ground on the subject in saying, " It becomes us, 
then, as philanthropists and as citizens, to fur- 
nish for the whole community the means of cul- 
tivating in the most jDerfect manner all of the 
talent with which the Creator has enriched it." 
And when in 1838, the Hon. J. Forsyth, Secre- 
tary of State, addressed letters to gentlemen 
who had* been conspicuous in educational posi- 
tions, asking their views as to the mode of apply- 
ing the proceeds of the [Smithsonian] bequest, 
which would be most likely to meet the wishes 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 79 

of the testator and prove advantageous to man- 
kind, Dr. Wayland drew up with some care a 
plan for the formation of a National University. 
Literary honors also came to him. He gave the 
Phi Beta Kappa Oration at Brown University, 
on September 7, 1831, choosing for his subject 
" The Philosophy of Analogy," published in the 
Volume of Discourses, 1833. In September, 
1836, he gave the Phi Beta Kappa Oration at 
Harvard College, selecting for his subject " The 
Practical Uses for the Principles of Faith." It 
was not, however, on literary occasions that he 
appeared to best advantage. The subjects 
which drew out his best powers, and in their 
best working, were those directly concerned with 
human interest in philanthrophy, in social sci- 
ence or in religion. 

The years 1827-1840 were thus years of con- 
tinuous and varied, often anxious, labor. " I 
am," he wrote to his sister, " a perfect dray- 
horse. I am in harness from morning to night, 
and from one year to another. I am never turned 
out for recreation." But they were also years 
of sorrow. In the spring of 1834, his wife died, 
after a short but distressing sickness. He suf- 
fered, as those natures of deep reserve are apt 
to suffer, for the most part in silence. His let- 
ters contain few outcries of the wounded spirit, 
but when they come, — they come from the 



80 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

depths. Few realized what keenness of anguish 
that spirit, by some regarded as austere and 
cold, was suffering. He found two sources of 
consolation : the one in his religious faith, the 
other in new devotion to his daily toil. The 
Christian life, in him so dominant an element, is 
of peculiar simplicity and tenderness during this 
influx of sorrow. His piety was of the old-fash- 
ioned cast. It had about it the flavor of godly 
sincerity. No man had less of anything ap- 
proaching cant. Yet no disciple of the Master 
ever knew deeper religious emotion at times than 
he. As one reads these letters, written under 
the shadow of this grief, it is evidently a piety 
of the school of Bunyan and Baxter and Howe 
which is pouring out its heart before God. 

The death of his mother, December 5, 1836, 
was a second blow following hard upon his ear- 
lier bereavement. The relations between the so.n 
and the mother had always been of peculiar 
closeness and sympathy. He had been her com- 
panion in childhood. She had influenced his 
mental development as well as his Christian life. 
He had nourished a chivalrous devotion to her 
as well as a profound respect for her attain- 
ments, and above all for her piety. To her he 
had turned in the hour of his great sorrow. He 
poured out his heart to her in his letters with 
the freedom and trust of childhood. These be- 



PRESIDLNCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 81 

reavements left ineffaceable impressions on his 
soul. They were recognized all along his later 
life in the peculiar vividness which the unseen 
world had for him. In his prayers, in some of 
his addresses to the students in their religious 
meetings, long after these sainted ones had gone 
into the world of light, it was noticeable that to 
him its blessedness, its comjDanionships, its ser- 
vice, were things near and not remote. He be- 
lieved in the " communion of saints," and his 
belief was intensified by the memory of the de- 
parted. To no article of the earliest creed of 
the church, did his soul respond more heartily 
than to that. 

A second marriage, in the summer of 1838, to 
Mrs. H. S. Sage, brought companionship in his 
home and a lifelong happiness to himself and to 
his children. Everything now in his career was 
prosperous. He had achieved a great position as 
an educator. His presidency of the college had 
ranked him high among the distinguished group 
of men who had filled that position in our New 
England colleges, — a group of christian schol- 
ars, it may be remarked, than whom, no more 
honored class had been produced on our soil. 
Every new venture in publication added to his 
reputation. He had earned a rest from his in- 
cessant toil. In 181:0, the Corporation of the 
university voted him leave of absence for the 



82 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

purpose of travel in the Old World. His col- 
league and life -long friend, Dr. Caswell, was 
asked to discharge the duties of the presidency 
in his absence. Dr. Wayland, in visiting the 
Old World, was more influenced by a desire to 
know something of its renowned seats of learn- 
ing and of general education abroad, than by any 
desire for recreation, or by the ordinary fancy 
of travelers for sight-seeing. In fact, he had 
not enough of either of these elements in his 
composition to make him a good traveler, or to 
gain from life abroad the benefits it may con- 
fer on a wearied scholar. His voyage thither, 
in October, was made in a sailing vessel, partly 
with the hope of gaining in health by the longer 
passage, partly because steam navigation was 
then not beyond the stage of experiment. The 
voyage of twenty-three days proved rough and 
uncomfortable. It induced a physical depres- 
sion, which clung to him during the entire visit. 
He landed in Liverpool, remained in England 
about a month, then crossed the channel to Paris. 
After a few weeks' stay here, he gave up all 
thought of seeing Switzerland, Italy, or Ger- 
many, returned to England, and passed the time 
there till his return to America in the following 
April. It cannot be said that his diary fur- 
nishes much of striking interest in the way of 
observation or comment. The tone of mental 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 83 

depression runs through it ; the absence of any 
penetrating view of things is marked ; his limit- 
ations appear rather than his peculiar gifts. He 
was welcomed of course with great heartiness by 
dissenters and also by churchmen. His fame 
as an educator and preacher had preceded him. 
He could not fail to notice the tone of dissenting 
clergymen toward American Christians. Speak- 
ing of the Rev. John Angell James and a visit 
from him, his diary proceeds : " All the talk 
about abolition, etc. ! It is amusing to perceive 
how this question seems to absorb every other 
among the dissenters, and to what extent they 
carry out their notions. A man who does not 
adopt their opinions is, it would seem, excom- 
municated from church and society." The sub- 
ject was evidently thrust upon him in ungracious 
forms, and sometimes in very offensive ones, as 
the following incident will show. "Dr. Way- 
land, in the course of his visits to the English 
institutions of learning, called to see the Baptist 

Academy in , where many eminent Baptist 

ministers had been educated. The principal, 

who was also the preacher at chapel, after 

giving Dr. Wayland all facilities for examining 
the institution, said, ' Sir, I am sorry that I can- 
not invite you to occupy my pulpit next Sabbath. 
Personally, I have no objection ; but some doc- 
trines in your treatise on the " Limitations of 



84 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Human Responsibility " have rendered you un- 
popular in England, and were I to do it, I should 
incur reprehension.' Dr. Wayland replied in 
one sentence : ' Sir, when I ask for your pulpit, 
it will be time enough for you to refuse it.' " ^ 

His month in Paris left little impression on 
him. He saw the great military pageant which 
bore the remains of Napoleon I. to their resting 
place, in the Hotel des Invaiides. He visited the 
galleries of the Louvre. But art, save in the form 
of Gothic architecture, did not strongly attract 
him. He could not rouse in himself any interest 
in the sights of Paris nor in its people. It is 
evident that he retraced his steps to England 
with undisguised satisfaction. Thenceforward, 
till his departure for home, he seems to have had 
constant intercourse with Englishmen high in 
church or state, with men of science, with noted 
literary characters ; in Scotland with her great 
divines, and his diary is much more full of in- 
terest. When he visits the English courts of 
justice he rises into enthusiasm. He had an 
early fondness for the lives of the great English 
jurists. He quoted frequently from them to his 
college classes. As he went from court to court, 
his admiration grew. " It was a more impressive 
sight, I must say," he wrote in his diary, " than 
the scarlet robe of the peer, the ermine of the 
bishops, the crown of state, the robe of her ma- 

^ Life of Wayland, vol. ii. p. 13. 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 85 

jesty, or all the pomp and circumstance which 
I witnessed an hour or two afterwards." His 
visits to Cambridge and Oxford were evidently 
disappointing to him in many respects. The fact 
is, he was thrown all the while into a mood of 
mental antagonism by the presence of so much 
form, and by the exercise of what seemed to him 
slavish deference to the aristocracy. " I know 
not how it is," he writes in his diary, " but all I 
see renders me more doggedly a democrat and 
a Puritan." He is profoundly moved by the 
architecture of such a cathedral as that of Lin- 
coln ; but Westminster Abbey, as the mausoleum 
of so much English greatness, fails to impress 
him deeply. He speaks with great delight of 
his visit to John Joseph Gurney, whose views on 
the Sabbath he had incorporated into his moral 
science. He seems to have had free access to 
the men of science, attending meetings of the 
Geological Society, of the Political Economy 
Club, of the Royal Society, and of the Philo- 
sophical Society. What he notes in these asso- 
ciations is the fellowship of science there cultiva- 
ted and the love of truth they foster. His visit to 
Oxford drew from him the following comment : 
" Of Oxford, what shall I say ? ^ Its buildings 

'^ " I heard from Mr. Wayland the other day, who gave me 
an extract from a letter from Dr. Wayland [his Am.erican 
cousin. President of Brown University, who had been lionized 



86 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

are magnificent, the surrovindings beautiful be- 
yond description. Its foundations are princely. 
. . . But when one reflects on the immense 
wealth of its establishment, and remembers that 
this was designed to promote the prosecution of 
science and the advancement of learning, and not 
for the cultivation of luxurious ease ; when one 
remembers that it was for the education of the 
people of England, and not a part of them, and 
that it is now used for the good of a part, and is 
the avenue to all social and professional stand- 
ing, I cannot think of it with unmixed respect. 
It seems to me a monstrous perversion. I do 
not speak of the present incumbents, I know not 
how far they are responsible, but of the sys- 
tem. Of this I can hardly speak in terms of 
too great disapprobation. It is in the main 
the same at Cambridge, though in detail it is 
more restrictive, and is more inclined to theol- 
ogy." Dr. Way land was drawn to Edinburgh 
by his desire to meet Dr. Chalmers. During 

in Oxford by J. B. M], describing us a most agreeable, intelli- 
gent, gentlemenly set of men ; but regretting tbat the advan- 
tages of the place were so confined to the aristocracy. He is 
of course perfectly mistaken here, and judges from what he 
sees in a first view. He meets with gentlemen and persons of 
superior manners, and forgets that it is the place which in 
many instances has made them such. For my own part, I 
think Oxford is the most leveling, democratieal place in the 
kingdom." — Mozley^s Letters, p. 117. 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 87 

his life as tutor, at Union College, he had fallen 
in with the sermons of the great Scotch divine, 
and wrote to his friend Wisner, " I have been 
lately reading Chalmers. The mind of that man 
moves like a torrent. Vast, irresistible, over- 
whelming, it sweeps before it the feeble barriers 
of infidelity, so that like the baseless fabric of a 
vision, not a rack is left behind." These early 
imj)ressions were confirmed by his visit. He 
heard Chalmers lecture, and " was strongly im- 
pressed with the opinion that the pulpit was his 
proper place, and that he erred in leaving it. A 
visit to Dr. Abercrombie, one to Sir William 
Hamilton, and to a meeting of the Royal Society 
of Edinburgh, made up for him the chief points 
of interest in his visit to Scotland. He failed, it 
would seem, to meet Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, whom 
he so greatly admired ; and though he visited 
John Foster at his home, it is almost provoking 
to find in the diary no notice of his conversation 
beyond the fact that " he talks with all the vi- 
vacity of youth." In fact, the diary is singularly 
wanting in reminiscences of his conversations 
with the men he met. It is refreshing to meet 
in one of his entries the following : " Mr. R. 
quoted a remark of Jeffrey ; ' He did not object 
to blue stockings provided the petticoats covered 
them.' " 



CHAPTER IV. 

PEESIDENCY OF BEOWN UNIVERSITY. 
1841-1855. 

. After his return from foreign travel, Dr. 
Waj'land devoted himself for some years to the 
administration of the college on the old lines 
of organization. He had wrought some benef- 
icent changes. The course of instruction had 
been enlarged and its standard elevated. Un- 
der his care, Brown University had gained high 
and deserved rank among the American colleges. 
Its graduates bore ample and hearty testimony 
to the breadth and thoroughness of their train- 
ing. As a practical educator, he occuj)ied, per- 
haps, the foremost place in New England. His 
expectations of growth for the college had, how- 
ever, not been met. A steady decline in the 
number of students arrested his attention and 
stimulated inquiry into its causes. This fact, 
together with the desire for uninterrupted time 
in which to revise his works already published, 
and to prepare others for the press, led him to 
resign his office as President at the Commence- 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 89 

ment of 1849. He had meditated this step 
for several years, and had corresponded with 
his friend Dr. Nott in regard to it. It took 
the whole community by surprise. The pro- 
test against it from the academic body, from the 
community generally, was instant and earnest. 
The wish of the Corporation that he should with- 
draw his resignation was so far acceded to, that 
he consented to remain in office during the cur- 
rent year. The result of the step he had taken 
in resiofning was a reorg-anization of the colles^e. 
In 1842 — less than two years after his return 
from Europe — he published his " Thoughts on 
the Present Collegiate System in the United 
States." This little volume contains the germs 
of all subsequent changes introduced by him. It 
is of importance as showing how fully matured 
were his plans in the new departure, or system, 
which in 1850 was instituted at Brown Univer- 
sity. This volume has a far wider significance 
as indicating that Dr. AVayland was a [)ioneer in 
all the modern changes which have so deeply 
affected our collegiate systems. He was a " re- 
former before the reformation." Othen men 
have entei'ed into his labors. Not all his views 
have been accepted. But he was the man who. 
in the year 1842, when the collegiate system as 
it stood was passively accepted, raised inquiries 
as to its completeness, suggested important 



90 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

changes, and laid bare some of its glaring de- 
fects. It thus forms a very prominent chapter 
in the history of higher education in the country. 

In the opening discussion, after alluding to 
the interest felt in liberal education by Amer- 
ican citizens, the generous provisions made in 
the foundations of colleges and seminaries, the 
inducement offered to students by the eleemosy- 
nary methods adopted, and the disproportionate 
response in the number of students to all this 
effort for the promotion of liberal education, he 
sums up his conclusions. 

" First, that there is in this country a very 
general willingness, both in the public and on 
the part of individuals, to furnish all the neces- 
sary means for the improvement of collegiate 
education. 

" Second, that the present system of collegiate 
education does not meet the wants of the pub- 
lic. The evidence of this is seen in the fact that 
change after change has been suggested in the 
system, without, however, any decided result, and 
still more from the fact that although this kind 
of education is afforded at a lower price than 
any other, we cannot support our present insti- 
tutions without giving a large portion of educa- 
tion away. 

" Third, that this state of things is neither 
owing to the poverty of our poeple, nor to their 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 91 

indifference to the subject of education. . . . 
A liberal education is certainly a valuable con- 
sidei'ation. Can it not be made to recommend 
itself, so tliat he who wishes to obtain it shall 
also be willing to pay for it? Cannot this gen- 
eral impression in favor of education be turned 
to some practical account, so that the system 
may be able to take care of itself ? Or at any 
rate, if after all that has been done we remain 
without having effected any material change, 
may it not be well to examine the whole system 
and see whether its parts may not admit of 
some better adjustment and work out a more 
perfect result? " ^ 

Dr. Wayland then passes in review the visi- 
torial power residing in the governing bodies of 
our colleges, and announces the following prin- 
ciples as those which should determine their 
selection. 

1. The members should be appointed solely 
with reference to their fitness for the office. 

2. They should be, from station and charac- 
ter, beyond the reach of personal or collateral 
motives. 

3. They should be few in number. 

4. They should not hold office by life-tenure, 
but for a certain specific time of service. 

1 Thoughts on the Present Collegiate System in the United 
States, pp. 16, 17. 



92 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

5. They should not form a close corporation, 
but should be chosen by some foreign body. 

In regard to the Faculty, he announces views 
even more at variance with received notions. 

1. The appointment of professors should be 
secured by competition. 

2. Both as to tenure and emoluments, the of- 
fice of professor should be made to depend upon 
the labor and the success of the incumbent. 

3. He ureses consideration of some efficient 
and just methods of removing incompetent or 
unfaithful pi'ofessors. 

All this was, however, preliminary to the main 
point of his discussion. That was the needed 
changes in the course of instruction. Here 
he assumes positions which show how he antici- 
pated many of our recent advances in the higher 
education. First of all he urged enlarged re- 
quirements for admission. The scope of such 
enlargement was to extend to more Latin, Greek, 
mathematics, history, ancient and modern, Eng- 
lish and modern languages. It would result, 
among other things, he said, In securing " stu- 
dents of a more uniform and more advanced age. 
It would also react favorably on the type of in- 
struction given in such institutions. Such an 
advance could be met in different ways. In 
one method, the number of studies pursued dur- 
ing the college course might be limited in such 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 93 

manner that whatever is taught may be taught 
thoroughly." 

Two things always excited abhorrence in Dr. 
Wayland. One was intolerance in religion, the 
other was superficiality in education. Accord- 
ingly he proposed a second method to extend the 
term of college residence, making it five or six, 
instead of four years. This was a favorite idea 
with him, really involving what has been brought 
about in the so-called graduate courses now pur- 
sued in all our more important institutions. 

A third plan would be to develop the college 
into a university. He would enlarge the system 
of degrees, from the venerable B. A. and M. A. 
degrees to one including that of Bachelor of Sci- 
ence or Literature. " And still more, in order 
to bring the whole course of study within the 
scope of university stimulants," instead of being 
conferred in course, the degree of M. A. " might 
be conferred only on those who have pursued 
successfully the whole circle of study marked 
out for the candidates for both degrees." These 
thoughts on college education were given to the 
public in 1842. That they may have been 
largely the fruit of his intercourse with English 
educators is rendered very probable by the re- 
peated allusions, in the Report, to the English 
universities and the illustrations borrowed from 
their history and methods. That other minds 



94 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

may have been cherishing and advancing these 
or similar reforms in the higher education is 
also true.^ But no one had given them so clear 
and forcible a statement. They make good his 
title to the fame of being the first prominent 
educator in America to urge reform in college 
methods. They are certainly the germinal 
thoughts which ripened into the changes intro- 
duced by him into Brown University eight years 
later. 

For the next seven years after the publication 
of these views, he was occupied in the adminis- 
tration of his office and in studies preparatory 
to a text-book in intellectual philosophy. The 
experience of these years, his wider observation 
of tendencies in the public mind regarding col- 
legiate education, confirmed him in the views he 
had set forth in the " Thoughts on the Present 
Collegiate System." The decline in the num- 
ber of students at Brown University, which had 
excited his ajDprehension in 1842, steadily con- 
tinued. There were enrolled on the catalogue 
of 1835-36, 195 ; on that of 1848-49 only 150. 
Catalogues of the intervening years show this 
decrease to have been gradual. It is evident 
that Dr. Wayland thought the decline in the 
patronage of the college was due to radically de- 
fective methods in the collegiate system of the 
1 President EUot's Bq)ort, 1883-1884. 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 95 

country. The deficiencies were not peculiar to 
Brown University. It shared them with the 
other colleges. According to its means, it had 
kept abreast of progi-ess in collegiate education. 
He was thus compelled to decide whether he 
would continue to identify himself with what he 
considered wrong methods in collegiate training, 
or whether, by resignation of his office, he would 
seek relief from all responsibility in the matter, 
and devote the remainder of his life to his books. 
The prompt refusal of the Corporation to accept 
his resignation, and the earnest remonstrances 
of every friend of the college, gave him the op- 
portunity of making a practical test of his views. 
It enabled him also to test the question as to 
whether the public would respond to these views. 
The book he had written, " Thoughts on the 
Present Collegiate System," had not attracted 
the attention it deserved. Educational bodies 
are proverbially conservative. New methods in 
education, like new opinions in religion, are re- 
garded with distrust. 

The way was then open for him to convey 
fully to the governing body of the college his 
matured views on the subject of college educa- 
tion. He would not remain as president of a 
declining institution, specially when he felt that 
the system needed changes, without which no 
great advances could be secured. Accordingly, 



96 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

on March 28, 1850, he made a " Report to the 
Corporation of Brown University." It is a 
pamphlet of seventy-six pages, and discusses in 
their order the following subjects : the System 
of University Education in Great Britain, the 
progress and present state of University Educa- 
tion in this country, the present condition of this 
University, the measures which the Committee 
[of this Corporation] recommend for the pur- 
pose of enlarging the usefulness of the Institu- 
tion, and the subject of Collegiate Degrees. 

The fundamental principle governing the whole 
report was that our colleges were not properly 
answering j)ublic demand in the matter of higher 
education. Reserving its specific recommenda- 
tions for future consideration, there are some 
general discussions which are characteristic of 
Dr. Wayland, and which invest his report with 
interest. As a document on education, it must 
always have a marked place in any history of 
the development of our collegiate institutions. 
He pays a high tribute to the work accom- 
plished by our American colleges in the earlier 
periods of their establishment. " We think it 
may be safely affirmed that they were eminently 
successful. We do not know of any British 
colony, at the present day, which has anything 
to compare with them. At these colleges were 
educated some of the profoundest theologians 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 97 

that any age has produced. They nurtured the 
men who, as juiists and statesmen and diploma- 
tists in the intellectual struggle that preceded 
the Revolution, shrunk not from doing battle 
with the ablest men of the mother country, and 
won for themselves in the contest the splendid 
eulogy of Lord Chatham, the noblest of them 
all ; the same men who, when the He volution 
was accomplished, framed for us, their successors, 
the Constitution of the United States, perhaps 
the most important document that the eighteenth 
century produced. We certainly, then, have no 
reason to be ashamed of the colleges founded in 
our early history." He notes still further " that 
these colleges were almost wholly without en- 
dowment. They were nearly self-supporting in- 
stitutions. The course of study was limited, 
and time was allowed for deliberate investiga- 
tion of each science. The mind of the student 
was supposed to invigorate itself by reflection 
and reading, and hence, with far less means 
than we now possess, it seems to have attained a 
more manly development." ^ 

He next calls attention to the important ad- 
vances made by modern science, and their bear- 
ing on the needs of a new country. These de- 
mands were so imperative that the colleges had 
been compelled to devise some way of meeting 
^ Report, p. 11. 



98 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

them. Accordingly, every new branch of sci- 
ence had been introduced into the college curri- 
culum, and this addition, as only the four years' 
course had been retained, necessarily curtailed 
the study of all branches formerly taught. The 
number of studies was thus increased, and every 
one was less perfectly mastered. The effect of 
this is argued, at considerable length,^ as dis- 
astrous both to the pupils and to the teachers. 
Passing from this, the Report then notices the 
" fact that, within the last thirty years or more, 
it had been found that the colleges of New Eng- 
land could not support themselves. . . . The 
demand for the article produced in them was 
falling off, not from the want of wealth, or in- 
telligence, or enterprise, in the community, but 
really because a smaller number of the commu- 
nity desired it." 

At first, the author went on to show, the at- 
tempt was made by means of eleemosynary aid 
to attract larger numbers of students. Endow- 
ments for this purpose were solicited and ob- 
tained. " An immense sum of money has within 
the last twenty years been contributed among us 
for the purposes of collegiate education." ^ He 
then grapples with the question, " Have the ef- 
forts that have been made in the direction . . . 
indicated accomplished the object intended ? " 

1 Report, pp. 14-20. ^ jjj-^_ pp. 24-28. 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 99 

This is subdivided into three questions, each of 
which is answered negatively. " Has the present 
mode of supporting the existing collegiate system 
increased the number of educated men in New 
England ? " " Has the standard of professional 
ability been raised within the last thirty years ? " 
" Have our efforts in this direction increased the 
number of ministers of the Gospel ? " 

After this general discussion, Dr. Wayland 
considers " the manner in which this college 
[Brown University] has been affected by 
changes which have been taking place in colle- 
giate education in New England." The falling 
off in the number of students is shown by care- 
fully prepared statistics, and this, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that during his administration " the 
demand for an enlargement of the studies of the 
collegiate course " by increased equipments had 
been met. Between the years 1832 and 1842 
the number of under-graduates had been larger 
than at any period within the last twenty-two 
years. But from 1839 to 1849 there had been 
a steady decline. In the year 1842, beneficiary 
aid had been to a great extent withdrawn. In 
contrast with the fortunes of other colleges, the 
endowment of Btown University, which in 1827, 
the time of Dr. Wayland' s accession to the pres- 
idency, was $34,300, had received no increase. 
" The college has not for more than forty years 



100 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

received a dollar, either from public or private 
benevolence, whieh could be appropriated to the 
support of the officers of instruction, or, with 
the exception of a temporary subscription, . . . 
a dollar which could be applied to the purpose 
of reducing the price of tuition." He further 
shows that at the present scale of expenditures, 
and the present rate of income, the funds must 
soon be exhausted, and the institution become 
bankrupt.^ 

The remainder of the Report discusses plans 
for meeting the crisis in the history of the. col- 
lege. First, by increase of endowments on the 
old lines of organization, namely, " the four 
years' course, considering the college as a mere 
preparatory school for the profession of Law, 
Medicine, and Divinity," thus making tuition 
cheaper, and ofPering it at a nominal price. This 
plan he dismisses after a brief consideration, for 
reasons assigned in the earlier part of his discus- 
sion. The other plan, that unfolded and advo- 
cated.^ was to " adapt the course of instruction 
to the wants of the whole community." It is 
best expressed in his own words. 

" If it be the fact that our colleges cannot sus- 
tain themselves, but are obliged to make repeated 
calls upon the benevolence of the community, 
not because the community is poor, and educa- 
^ Beport, pp. 47, 48. ^ j-j^^. pp. 5o_76. 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 101 

tion inordinately expensive, but because, instead 
of attempting to furnish scientific and literary 
instruction to every class of our people, they 
have furnished it only to a single class, and that 
by far the least numerous ; if they are furnishing 
an education for which there is no remuneration, 
but, even at the present low prices, a decreasing 
demand ; if they are not by intention, but practi- 
cally, excluding the vastly larger portion of the 
community from advantages in which they would 
willingly participate, and are thus accomplish- 
ing but a fraction of the good which is mani- 
festly within their power, then it would seem 
that relief must be expected from a radical 
change of the system of collegiate instruction. 
We must carefully survey the wants of the vari- 
ous classes of the community in our own vicinity, 
and adapt our courses of instruction, not for the 
benefit of one class, but for the benefit of all 
classes. The demand for general education in 
our country is pressing and unusual. The want 
of that science, which alone can lay the founda- 
tion of eminent success in the useful arts, is ex- 
tensively felt. The proportion of our young men 
who are devoting themselves to the productive 
professions is great, and annually increasing. 
They all need such an education as our colleges, 
with some modifications in their present system, 
could very easily supply." ^ 

1 Report, pp. 50, 51. 



102 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

The modifications he proposed, touching as 
they do the very core and essence of his later 
views on education, will be presented later in 
this volume, in connection with his whole work 
as an educator. It is enough here to say that the 
Report attracted wide and profound attention. 
The views presented were directly in conflict 
with the generally received ideas of collegiate 
education. It was not easy for many to see that 
his opinions on eleemosynary education were sus- 
tained either by experience or a sound theory of 
education, nor, indeed, that they were the nec- 
essary conditions of a wise university reform. 
Hence these views were earnestly controverted. 
The leading reviews, directly or indirectly, as- 
sailed the arguments and the conclusions of the 
Report. The main point of attack was its sup- 
posed hostility to the classics, its exaltation of 
special over general training, its undue praise of 
science, and its utilitarian tone. 

The newspapers representing the popular opin- 
ion on the subject were friendly to his ideas, and 
commended the schemes he proposed for remod- 
eling university training. In his own city, the 
"Providence Journal," then edited by Hon. 
Henry B. Anthony, himself an accomplished 
scholar, gave a cordial indorsement and hearty 
support to his projects. It is doubtful, however, 
whether the Corporation of the university as a 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 103 

body was convinced of the soundness of his edu- 
cational opinions. Nor were the members of his 
Faculty inclined to adopt all his views. It was 
understood, indeed, that if they could be adopted 
in the main, and provision for carrying them into 
effect could be secured, that Dr. Wayland would 
consent to remain for a season longer at the head 
of the university. To carry into operation the 
" New System," as it was called, there was de- 
manded a large increase of the college funds. 
New professorships were necessary, and " exten- 
sive modifications of the college buildings." One 
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars was 
the estimated amount needed for the successful 
working out of the plan. Pending its adoption 
by the Corporation, Dr. Wayland visited the 
University of Virginia, in which a somewhat 
similar system had been in actual working from 
its foundation, in order to examine its results. 
This visit had only one issue, to confirm him as 
to the wisdom and necessity of changes proposed. 

The Corporation met on May 7th, and adopted 
the Keport, on condition that the sum needed to 
carry its recommendations into effect should be 
subscribed on or before its meeting in Septem- 
ber. The sum was raised, and the college went 
on under the new organization from that date. 

The immediate results of its adoption were 
seen in an increase of students. Meantime, in 



104 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

public and in private, Dr. Wayland gave him- 
self to the promotion of his plan with his accus- 
tomed persistent energy. At Union College, in 
1854, he delivered an address upon the " Edu- 
cation Demanded by the People of the United 
States." Two years later, he spoke at the dedi- 
cation of the Free Academy, Norwich, Conn., 
and gave a lecture before the American Insti- 
tute of Instruction. In all these utterances, he 
brought before the public the views in his " Re- 
port to the Corporation of Brown University." 
One of his favorite ideas was to make the higher 
education in some direct way serviceable to the 
workingmen — the skilled mechanics. In pursu- 
ance of this design, in 1852 a course of lectures 
was given in the college upon the principles and 
processes employed in calico printing, by Mr. W. 
W. Pearce, then Instructor in Analytical Chem- 
istry. In 1853 Professor George I. Chace, hold- 
ing the chair of " Chemistry applied to the 
Arts," gave a course of lectures upon the 
" Chemistry of the Precious Metals " to the 
"jewelers and other workers in those metals." 
Both these courses directly appealed to Rhode 
Island industries. At the latter course, over three 
hundred artisans were in attendance. Professor 
J. W. Draper had said in an address (1853), 
" I heartily join in the sentiments recently ex- 
pressed by an eminent clergyman, and trust that 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 105 

the time is not distant when we shall see the 
New York mechanic passing up the steps of the 
university, and depositing the tools he has been 
usiner behind the door." The wish had become 
a fact in Providence, on the occasions of the lec- 
tures of Professor Chace. 

Nor were the severer studies neglected, as had 
been the fear of many wise and accomplished 
educators. The classics and mathematics held 
their own. The degrees requiring study of the 
classics showed no falling off, but a proportion- 
ate ffain in the number of candidates. The re- 
ports of the Executive Board — a sub-committee 
of the Trustees and Fellows — to the Corporation 
for successive years, all speak in favor of the 
working of the " New System." 

From 1850 to 1855, Dr. Wayland was en- 
gaged in the work of supervising and developing 
this new departure in the college administration. 
Probably they were the most anxious, certainly 
the most laborious, years of his life. Indeed, 
it was the judgment of his physician, that he 
never overcame the effect of the strain to which 
his mental energies were subjected. On him 
mainly would have rested all the blame of a con- 
spicuous failure, had the experiment not suc- 
ceeded. This he fully realized, and hence he 
gathered up all his resources to meet the great 
issue of his life. Aside from this general care 



106 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

over the interests of the college in its new organ- 
ization, he was never more absorbed in his work 
of teaching the college classes than during these 
busy years. His pupils were only conscious of 
a strenuous effort on his part to make the chair 
of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy more pow- 
erful in its hold upon the body of students un- 
der him. He was also occupied in the prepara- 
tion of his text-book on Mental Philosophy. In 
1854, this was published. It was also during 
this period that he wrote the memoir of Dr. 
Adoniram Judson. 

If to these labors, be added those connected 
with public addresses, such as the Annual Ad- 
dress before the Rhode Island Society for the 
Encouragement of Domestic Industry, in 1851 ; 
his funeral sermon on Dr. Sharp, of Boston, in 
June, 1853, the manuscript of which was depos- 
ited beneath the corner-stone of the First Baptist 
Church in Boston; his sermon on the "Apostolic 
Ministry," one of his most carefully prepared 
discourses, delivered before the New York Bap- 
tist Union in July, 1854 ; the introductory lec- 
ture for the twenty-fifth annual meeting of the 
American Institute of Instruction ; the address 
at Union College on the occasion of the fiftieth 
anniversary of Dr. Nott's presidency of that 
institution, it is easy to see that his capacity for 
work was tested to its utmost, and that these 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 107 

closing years of his presidency were among the 
most fruitful of his entire career. He had never 
learned how to take vacations. His enjoyment 
was in change of work. Only such rest as that 
may bring was known in the twenty-eight years 
of his presidential career. He became convinced 
that he " could not have discharged [his] duties 
for another year." His physician also enjoined 
on him the duty of resting from active work in 
the college. He decided to resign his office. 
Accordingly, at a special meeting of the Cor- 
poration held August 21, 1855, Dr. Wayland 
read his letter of resignation. 

Bkown University, August 20, 1855. 
To the Corporation of Brown University : 

Gentlemen, — After more than twenty-eight 
years' service, the conviction is forced upon me 
that relaxation and change of labor have become 
to me a matter of indispensable necessity. 
These, I am persuaded, cannot be secured while 
I hold the office with which you have so long 
honored me. I therefore believe it to be my 
duty to resign the offices of President of Brown 
University and Professor of Moral and Intellec- 
tual Philosophy. If it be agreeable to you, I 
desire that this resignation may take place at 
the close of the present collegiate year. 

In sundering the ties which have so long bound 



108 FRANCIS WATLAND. 

US officially together, I shall not attempt to ex- 
press the sentiments of gratitude and respect 
which I entertain toward the gentlemen of the 
Corporation of Brown University. For more 
than a quarter of a century we have labored to- 
gether in promoting the cause of good learning, 
and specially in advancing the interests of this 
institution. Those who, like myself, were young 
men when I entered upon office, are, with me, 
beginning to feel the approaches of age. Yet 
during this long period, no spirit of dissension 
has either divided our councils or enfeebled our 
exertions. We have beheld the university, year 
after year, advancing in reputation and useful- 
ness, and diffusing more and more widely the 
blessino's of education. Let us thank God for 
giving us this opportunity of conferring benefits 
on mankind, and for crowning our labors with 
so large a measure of success. 

Permit me, gentlemen, to tender to each one 
of you the assurances of my grateful regard, 
and believe me to be, 

With the highest respect. 
Your obedient servant, 

Francis Wayland. 

Regretting the necessity laid upon them, but 
recognizing its imperative demand, the resigna- 
tion was accepted. When the college bell rang 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. 109 

for the opening exercises of the next collegiate 
year, Dr. Waylancl, happening to meet one of his 
former pupils on the street, paused a moment to 
listen, and then said, " No one can conceive the 
unspeakable relief and freedom which I feel at 
this moment, to hear that bell ring, and to know, 
for the first time in twenty-nine years, that it 
calls me to no duty." 

He had resigned his office in happy opportu- 
nity. He was at the height of his great fame. 
His name was known and honored at home and 
abroad. He had carried through successfully 
plans of reorganization for the college, which had 
cost him years of thought and effort. He had 
seen them bearing fruit in wider spheres than 
that occupied by Brown University. He was not 
only the foremost citizen in Rhode Island, he 
was the foremost divine in the ministry of the 
Baptist Church. And amid such successes, with 
the ever heightening esteem of his fellow-citizens 
and fellow-educators, his intellectual power un- 
impaired, his eye still bright with hope for human 
progress, his heart animated only by new and 
larger impulse for every good thing in learning 
or religion, he gave up his office. Finis coro- 
nat opus. A serious crisis in the history of the 
college to which he had given the best years of 
his life had been safely passed. Not all the 
schemes he then proposed have been successful. 



110 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

His plans have been modified. But tlie essential 
features of his " new system," the elective prin- 
ciple in studies, have been adopted in every 
leading college or university. And the college 
in which he instituted the chancres then entered 
on a new and broader career of usefulness. 
Brown University, though among the smaller 
American colleges, has maintained always a 
high repute for high and thorough scholarship. 
Her debt to President Wayland is not to be 
reckoned by ordinary methods. 

Commencement Day, 1855, the day on which 
he laid down his office is memorable in the his- 
tory of the college, and of the city in which it 
is placed. It was a day of profound feeling, 
shai-ed alike by the civic and academic com- 
munity. It pervaded all classes. There could 
not have been a more fitting tribute to the re- 
tiring president than this deep, silent feeling of 
regret that he was no more to be hailed as 
President of Brown University, mingled, as it 
was, with the sentiment of homage to his good- 
ness and his greatness. When the regular Com- 
mencement exercises in the First Baptist Church 
were ended, and the degrees were conferred, 
Dr. Tobey, a citizen of Providence, a prominent 
member of the Society of Friends, and long a 
member of the Corporation, and the chancellor 
of the university, presented the resolutions which 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERSITY. Ill 

had been adopted by the Board of Fellows and 
Trustees in accepting- his resignation. As he 
finished reading them, he added, " President 
Wayland, I herewith present thee a certified 
copy of the resolutions, now read in thy hearing. 
Wilt thou be pleased also to accept from me 
personally the assurance of my high respect 
for thee as a citizen and an instriictor of youth, 
with the desire that Heaven may smile with 
prosperity upon the evening of thy days." The 
quaint simplicity of the Friend's language on 
the occasion seemed entirel}' fitting, and more 
impressive than any ornate speech could have 
been. Dr. Wayland replied with equal simplic- 
ity : — 

"Mr. Chancellor, I beg you to accept, for 
yourself and for the gentlemen with whom you 
are associated, ray grateful acknowledgments for 
the kindness with which you have been pleased 
to estimate my imperfect services. If the Cor- 
poration of Brown University believe that I have 
faithfully endeavored to do my duty, I desire ho 
higher earthly reward." 

Dr. Joseph P. Thompson, then pastor of the 
Broadway Tabernacle, New York eity, who was 
present, a witness of the scene, wrote thus con- 
cerning it, in suggestive and impressive words : 

"The whole scene, the 'unbaptized Quaker,' 
the representative of the extremest spiritualism. 



112 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

in liis prim habit, and with his precise and well- 
ordered phrase, contrasted with the sturdy Bap- 
tist, the representative of the intensest form of 
an outward ordinance, yet overflowing with spir- 
itual emotion ; these two sects, whose forerun- 
ners were outlawed from the old Puritan Colony 
of Massachusetts, now meeting in that shelter 
which Roger Williams founded for ' persons dis- 
tressed for conscience,' and fraternizing in behalf 
of a sound and liberal Christian Education, — 
this was a scene which some painter's pencil or 
some poet's pen should have caught upon the 
instant to transmit to other generations." 

At the Commencement dinner which followed, 
Dr. Wayland gave his formal farewell address 
to the alumni, whose lengthening ranks he had 
welcomed there from year to year, in the suc- 
cessive classes graduated under him. He un- 
folded simply the guiding principles of his ad- 
ministration. They were, " a resolute and 
honest consecration to the work to be done," " a 
dogged instinct to do his duty," "never to act 
for to-morrow, or next month, instead of to-day," 
" adherence to general principles," and lastly 
reliance on the Word of God. " Whatever of 
knowledge I have of men or mind, I have gained 
from the New Testament of our Lord Jesus 
Christ." These were dilated on in his own sim- 
ple but most forcible way, and they closed the 



PRESIDENCY OF BROWN UNIVERtHTY. 113 

long and honorable career fitly, because they 
were so admirably in keeping with the whole 
tenor of his presidency. 

Had Dr. Wayland's active labors ended with 
his resignation of the presidency of Brown Uni- 
versity, it could have been justly said that he 
had filled up and rounded out a great career. 
He had won a place among the most famous of 
American preachers, and his sermons would have 
been ranked among the lasting efforts of the 
American pulpit, perishable as sermon literature 
is wont to be. He had raised Brown University 
to a worthy rank among the American colleges. 
His teachings on moral science had moulded 
with singular power a generation of students, and 
had profoundly affected the Christian thought 
of the country. He had proposed, nay had put 
into active operation, a system of university 
education, which eventually issued in the recon- 
struction of that system on its present lines. He 
in all this had never forgotten his position as a 
Baptist, and by his devotion to denominational 
interests had become the most influential leader 
in that large and growing body of Christians, his 
name standing in America where that of Robert 
Hall or John Foster stood in England. 

Had he then retired from all active work for 
years of learned leisure with a 



114 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

" fast intent 
To shake all cares and business from [his] age, 
Conferring them on younger strengths," 

it would have been said that no man had better 
earned the exemptions from toil. Few thought 
that there were in him yet possibilities of so 
great service. The lines of work were to be 
different, but the outcome of his last years marks 
one of the most impressionable periods of his life, 
and one of the most instructive in the annals of 
biography. 



CHAPTER V. 

LAST TEARS. 1855-1865. 

Dr. Wayland had always been fond of lior- 
ticulture. The garden belonging to the presi- 
dent's house on College Street was the scene of 
his daily toils in spring and summer. He did 
not merely dabble in gardening, leaving to a gar- 
dener the hard work. He planted his own peas 
and celery, pruned his own trees, and weeded 
the beds himself. His memoirs ^ give lengthened 
extracts from his diary in these later years, which 
show how large a part of his life his garden had 
become. There he found his chief recreation. 
There too in pleasant chats, his friends and at 
times his students, enjoyed some of his choicest 
hours. 

When, therefore, after his removal from the 
president's house, and his occupancy of the 
dwelling he had built for himself, his first care 
was the preparation of its garden. In March, 
1856, he removed to the new home. With his 
own hand he planted the trees which now shade 
1 Vol. ii. pp. 301-303. 



116 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

the grounds. More than ever, horticulture occu- 
pied his time, engaged his thoughts, shaped his 
correspondence. Late in life it is recorded of 
him that " he could be on his feet in the garden, 
working from breakfast time till two o'clock " 
without weariness, when he could not take a 
walk of any length without comj)laining of 
fatigue. 

The year following his resignation of the col- 
lege presidency was mainly a year of mental 
rest. Yet he could not give up intellectual work 
wholly. He prepared for publication that series 
of weekly letters which had appeared over the 
signature of Roger Williams in the " Exam- 
iner," a Baptist weekly. The volume was enti- 
tled " Notes upon the Principles and Practices 
of Baptist Churches " ; a volume less elaborate 
in structure than any of his other works, and 
yet noteworthy as an exposition of the principles 
and practices which have made the history of 
the Baptists so large and influential a chapter 
in the ecclesiastical history of the world. 

The quiet tenor of his life was broken only on 
two occasions, in which he appeared before the 
public to make addresses. One of these occasions 
was memorable in the history of the country. 
Charles Sumner had been brutally assaulted in 
the Senate Chamber of the United States by 
Preston S. Brooks, a representative from South 



LAST YEARS. 117 

Carolina. The indignation of New England 
burned hotly on reception of the news of the das- 
tardly outrage ; as dastardly in its plan and at- 
tack as in its spirit. Many men who had been 
no admirers of Senator Sumner's methods, or 
who had given him only lukewarm support, were 
roused by the cruel and wicked deed into sym- 
pathy with the sufferer, and with the cause he 
represented. Public meetings were held through- 
out the Northern States to denounce the crime 
as flagitious in all its aspects. The best citizens 
of Providence, without distinction of party, met 
in Howard Hall on the evening of the 7th of 
June. Alexander Duncan pi'esided. Dr. Cas- 
well, of the university, offered a series of resolu- 
tions which were supported by addresses from 
Prof. Gammell, Hon. Charles S. Bradley, and 
the Rev. Dr. Hedge. The closing speech was by 
Dr. Wayland. As he stepped on the platform 
an outburst of applause indicated the instinctive 
reverence of that community for the late presi- 
dent in his retirement, and with what joy and 
confidence they looked to his counsel in all such 
crises. Every speech made on that occasion is a 
high example of oratorical power. The opening 
of Dr. Way land's is marked by its calm discus- 
sion of principles. But there was in his soul a 
native hatred of all tyrannj^ and this, in the clos- 
ing passages, occasioned an outburst in which 



118 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

the feeling of the great assembly found at last 
full voice, as he depicted in the bludgeon of 
Senator Sumner's assailant the dethronement of 
government by law, and the enthronement of 
government by brute force. 

" We have met this evening deliberately to 
ask each other whether we are prepared to in- 
augurate such a change in the form of our gov- 
ernment, whether we choose to be governed by 
laws which express the intellectual and moral 
opinions of the people of this country, or by laws 
enacted without the opportunity even of free de- 
bate ; by laws forced upon us at the point of the 
bowie-knife, or under the muzzle of a revolver ; 
whether in fact we will be free and sovereign 
states, or the mere provinces of a section of this 
country, under the same constitution as slave- 
holders have ordained for their chattels, from 
whom we should differ only in complexion." 

" The question before us is simply whether 
you, here and now, consent to this change in our 
form of government, and accept the position 
which it assigns to you, and whether you agree 
to transmit to your children this inheritance. 
For myself, I must decline the arrangement. I 
was born free, and I cannot be made a slave. 1 
bow before the universal intelligence and con- 
science of my country, and when I think this 
defective, I claim the privilege of using my 



LAST YEARS. 119 

poor endeavors to enlighten it. But submit my 
reason to the bludgeon of a bully or the pistol 
of an assassin, I cannot ; nor can I tamely be- 
hold a step taken which leads directly to such 
a consummation." 

Not long after the Sumner address he at- 
tended the Commencement at Yale College. At 
the meeting of the alumni he was called on for 
a speech. Speeches at alumni dinners are gen- 
erally among the most evanescent of all oratory. 
He was no practiced after-dinner speaker. He 
could be witty on occasion, never lacked an an- 
ecdote to point a remark, but he was no man 
to set the table in a roar. But the off-hand ad- 
dress he made at that meeting of Yale alumni 
has had a memorable history, as shaping the 
future career of one of the most distinguished 
American educators. 

The organizer and the future President of 
Cornell University happened then to be at Yale, 
a graduate student. How he came to hear Dr. 
Wayland's speech, and what that speech did for 
him, is best told in President White's own words : 
" Lounging about the edge of the crowd at the 
alunmi meeting at Yale in 1856, I was attracted 
by hearing his (Dr. Wayland's) name, as he 
was called on to speak. He rose, and his ap- 
pearance made an impression on me, such that I 
doubt whether those who saw him constantly 



120 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

now carry in their minds a more vivid portrait 
of him than I do at this moment. 

" He spoke of the possible rise or decline of 
this nation, of the duties of educated men, and 
said that he believed this country was fast ap- 
proaching a ' switching-off place ' towards good 
or towards evil, and added that in determining 
which way the nation should be ' switched off,' 
the West held the balance of j)ower, and that 
the West was the place for earnest men to work 
in, to influence the nation. That was all ; but 
it changed my whole life. I gave up law, litera- 
ture, and politics, and thenceforward my strong- 
est desire was to work anywhere and anyhow at 
the West on education." 

The Rev. Dr. James N. Granger, pastor of 
the First Baptist Church, died January 5, 1857. 
Between himself and Dr. Wayland a close inti- 
macy had existed. The family of Dr. Granger 
and the church united in the request that he 
would preach the discourse commemorative of 
the late pastor. No sooner had this been done 
than the church in its bereavement turnejd to 
Dr. Wayland for his help in their hour of peed. 
His position before the world and in his i own 
community, his relations to that church, Inade 
this appeal most fitting as it was most natural. 
What ensued makes up one of the most inter- 
esting portions of his life. 



LAST YEARS. 121 

Little more than a year had elapsed since he 
had laid aside the cares and labors of the college 
presidency. He was scarcely rested from his 
long and arduous services in that post. He had 
other and very different plans formed. At first 
the church committee asked him simply to un- 
dertake the supply of the pulpit from Sunday 
to Sunday, while they should look about for a 
pastor to take the place of Dr. Granger. This 
invitation was promptly but courteously declined 
for the reason assigned by himself. " This I 
was unwilling to do, for I thought that some 
time would elapse before a suitable candidate 
could be provided, and I believed that the church 
needed, not merely preaching on the Sabbath, 
but great and faithful labor from house to house." 
Accordingly the joint committee of the church 
and of the society for the supply of the pulpit 
modified the invitation by enlarging its terms 
to what would be a virtual pastorate. Thus 
changed it read, " Resolved, that Rev. Francis 
Wayland, D. D., be earnestly requested to un- 
dertake the performance of ministerial and pas- 
toral labors for the time being, and until it may 
be thought best to make some other arrangement; 
and that he be requested to devote his time and 
energies to these ministrations in such ways as 
may best be adapted to promote the highest re- 
ligious interests of the church and society," The 



122 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

compensation for the services was fixed at twen- 
ty-five dollars per week. 

This invitation Dr. Wayland accepted, and 
began his labors as pastor j^^o tern, of the First 
Baptist Church, in the month of February, 
1857. It is evident that he did not undertake 
this new field of labor from want of occupation. 
At the time the call came to him, he had on hand 
important and long - deferred literary projects. 
In fact, it seemed the natural close to his career, 
that he should devote himself to these projects 
as being on the same line of work which had 
occupied him during his college presidency. But 
there were powerful motives constraining him to 
relinquish for a time the literary labors in hand 
and take up again the work of the ministry, — 
which thirty years before he had laid down to be 
President of Brown University. In his sermon 
on the " Apostolic Ministry," preached at the 
University of Rochester, New York, at the re- 
quest of the New York Baptist Union for Minis- 
terial Education, he had insisted with great force 
on certain features of pastoral and pulpit work, 
as essential to the true growth of Christianity. 
Visitation from house to house, preaching the 
Gospel in personal interviews, and this, supple- 
mented by a plain, direct method of sermonizing, 
was the apostolic ideal, and must be restored. 
Dr. Wayland felt that he could enforce what he 



LAST YEARS. ' 123 

had said so publicly, if he attempted himself to 
do what he had urged on others. He held mere 
words always cheap. He disdained anything like 
talking for effect. He said once to one of his 
sons, during a walk in the winter of 1857 : 
" Example is the most powerful force in morals ; 
this law God has established ; and in his deal- 
ings with us He acts in accordance with it, setting 
us an example of the dispositions which he bids 
lis cultivate." He wovdd therefore add the force 
of example to what he had so forcibly uttered 
as his convictions in the sermon on the " Apos- 
tolic Ministry." In the Reminiscences, he has 
detailed the views with which be entered upon 
the work of the pastorate. 

" The moment I assumed the duties of pastor, 
I relinquished every other engagement and occu- 
pation. I laid away my manuscripts, put aside 
all labor for myself, and devoted myself to the 
service of the Gospel. ... I had published my 
views of the ministry, of the kind of preaching- 
needed, of the other labors (besides preaching) 
devolving on the minister, and of the necessity 
of making every other pursuit secondary to this, 
if we expected the blessing of God. From con- 
sistency, as well as from conscience, I felt under 
obligation to follow my own directions, or rather 
what I supposed to be the commands of our 
Lord and Saviour. If I can speak of my own 



124 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

motives, I do not know that I ever commenced 
any imdertaking from a more simple desire to 
do the work of the Master." 

The First Baptist Church of Providence is 
one of the historic churches of New England. 
Its two hundred and fiftieth anniversary was cel- 
ebrated in April, 1889. Its founder, and in a 
sense first minister, was Roger Williams. Its 
early record, though somewhat marred by dis- 
sensions, is full of interest for the student of our 
ecclesiastical histor3^ In 1770, after an exist- 
ence of one hundred and thirty years, "it had 
never paid its ministers, and on principle was 
opposed to doing it. It discarded singing and 
music in public worship, after the manner of the 
Quakers and the early Baptists in England. It 
was still rigorous for the laying on of hands. It 
refused communion to those who did not prac- 
tice it. It held those liable to discijoline who 
should join in prayer without the bounds of the 
church." But after that date, it had entered 
on a new and enlarged career. Its pulpit had 
been filled by James Manning, first President 
of Brown University, Dr. Jonathan Maxy, Dr. 
Stephen Gano, Dr. Robert Patterson, Dr. William 
Hague, and Dr. James N. Granger.^ The meet, 
ing- house, on its historic site, with its com- 
manding spire, a noble specimen of that earlier 

^ Vide the late Dr. S. L. Caldwell's Historical Discourse. 



LAST YEARS. 125 

and simpler church architecture which has been 
supplanted too often by what is more showy and 
less effective, was and is one of the landmarks 
of the old city. Socially as well as historically, 
the church held an influential position in the 
community. There had worshiped generations 
of old Rhode Island families who had given 
character to the city and the State. Its vigor 
had been unimpaired, and it offered to any pas- 
tor a position of great dignity and usefulness. 

It was, however, nothing in the past history 
or present commanding position of the church 
that attracted Dr. Wayland to its pastorate. It 
was simply and absolutely the opportunity fur- 
nished for an earnest, laborious ministry, after 
the apostolic model. If the call had been to the 
humblest church in the city, it would have been 
accepted with equal promptness and with equal 
devotion. 

And so, in his sixty-first year, without any 
thorough recuperation from the long, unbroken 
toils of his presidency, he entered uj)on the work 
of a pastor, which he had laid down a genera- 
tion before. At once he began a round of pas- 
toral visits. By these he did not mean merely 
social calls. " I resolved," he said, " that I 
would visit no house without introducing the 
subject of religion as a personal matter, and 
that in every case, unless it was manifestly best 



126 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

to omit it, I would pray with the family." This 
pastoral work he kept up for nearly a year, till 
every family had been visited. Beginning his 
rounds in the forenoon, dining, perchance, with 
one of the families, or taking a hasty meal at 
some restaurant, plodding on from house to 
hotise, following up the persons he sought into 
shops and counting-rooms, never riding, giving 
as his reason for not doing so, " I could not 
ride to see poor persons who never ride," he 
managed to secure " personal conversation on 
religion with by far the greater part of the ad- 
ults of the parish." One of his friends testifies 
that " a number of times on Wednesday evening 
I went into the vestry before the congregation 
had gathered [for the weekly religious service], 
and at first thought no one was there. But pres- 
ently I would see Dr. Wayland lying down on 
one of the seats ; he was worn out with the in- 
cessant visiting and talking of the day, and was 
resting for a few minutes." 

This Wednesday evening lecture brought out 
some of Dr. Wayland's choicest gifts. He 
magnified its importance and threw his soul into 
it. The informal, face-to-face meeting with his 
people elicited his deepest feelings, and stimu- 
lated some of his most effective addresses. His 
reading of the Scriptures, always impressive, at 
this service, took on its most impressive tone. 



LAST YEARS. 127 

His appeals to the conscience were then most 
direct. His unfolding of the Christian life was 
then suffused with the glow of his own experi- 
ence. The pastoral visiting of the day just ended 
often gave him the clue to his evening address, 
and kindled the fire which burned throughout 
his appeals. He mourned that he could not do 
in the pulpit on the Sabbath what he was so 
easily accomplishing in these Wednesda}^ even- 
ing conferences. Probably he underrated the 
efficacy of the more studied pulpit discourses. 
They were needed in their place as much as 
were the emotional and searching off-hand talks 
or exhortations of the conference room. It is 
not too much to say that he succeeded in mak- 
ing the weekly service of the church all that 
such a service should be in maintaining the spir- 
itual life of the people. 

His sermons were prepared from week to 
week, and in great part were written. "Fre- 
quently," he writes to a brother minister, " I 
write two and always one sermon for the Sab- 
bath. I am, however, more and more satisfied 
that this is a useless labor, and I hope soon to 
begin to preach once a day without notes. I 
see that I am in danger of being confined to 
them, and the writing consumes valuable time." 

It will be remembered that it was owing to 
no want of sermons already prepared, that Dr. 



128 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Wayland undertook the preparation of fresh 
ones. He had by him in manuscript the dis- 
courses of years, preached in the college chapel 
and in the churches round about. But he had 
come to feel that the i^reaching needed for the 
place and the hour should be simpler, more 
direct, and more vital, with the single aim of 
making salvation by Christ the ruling topic, and 
of bringing this theme into the closest relations 
with the consciences and hearts of his hearers, 
then and there. It was said of him by a brother 
clergyman, and the statement is not strained, 
that Dr. Wayland never wrote an obscure sen- 
tence in his life. His published sermons show 
a careful style, and many of them are ornate 
with a grave but sonorous eloquence. All this 
he deliberately eschewed in this later preaching 
from Sabbath to Sabbath in the pulpit of the 
First Baptist Church. It was literally a " com- 
mending the truth to every man's conscience in 
the sight of God." 

In such labors he was abundant, when the 
wide religious interest of 1858, following the 
commercial reverses of 1857, swept through the 
American churches. Into this movement Dr. 
Wayland threw himself, heart and soul. Plac- 
ing, as he did, the greatest importance on the 
pastoral care as an element of any successful 
ministry, he began to revisit the people of his 



LAST YEARS. 129 

charge. But in addition to this he sought way- 
side oijpoi'tunities of personal address. Meeting 
young men of his acquaintance in his walks, he 
would address them tenderly, solemnly, briefly, 
and then pass on. " I was walking with him 
down Thomas Street," said a member of his fam- 
ily, " when he said to me, ' There is a man who 
has been avoiding me for weeks. I want to 
speak to him ; ' and he left me standing till he 
had done so." 

It was, however, in the so-called business 
men's prayer-meeting, held daily, that his most 
effective efforts were often put forth. These 
meetings gathered into themselves the lawyers, 
judges, merchants, tradesmen, mechanics, among 
whom his life had been spent. He knew them 
and their histories. His off-hand addresses were 
strikingly adapted to the end in view. He laid 
bare all the fallacious excuses to which such men 
are apt to flee. 

" There was one peculiarity in his preaching," 
is the testimony of Rev. Dr. Caswell, " in which 
he seemed to me to surpass all men to whom I 
have ever listened. It was in exposing the de- 
vices of the heart, and in hunting a guilty sinner 
from every subterfuge, from every refuge of lies 
until he stood before himself in all the deformity 
of sin. He had deeply studied the laws and 
modes of action of the human conscience, and 



130 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

few, if any, of the world's great teachers have 
ever handled it more skillfully." "No man," 
said another, " ever ploughed through my con- 
science as Dr. Wayland did." In all this we 
cannot help tracing the influence of Rev. Dr. 
Nettleton, remarkable himself for this power, 
and under whose ministry years before, in a sim- 
ilar religious awakening. Dr. Wayland, then a 
tutor in Union College, had come. He had also 
a sense of the eternal realities which gave his 
speech the force of one who "testified that he 
had seen." All the prodigious earnestness of 
which his soul was capable came out in those 
pungent, plain-dealing, but tender addresses to 
his neighbors and friends.^ " I was going out 
of the hall [where these meetings were held] 
one day, when I chanced to look around and saw 
an aged man, bowed down, and Dr. Wayland 
leaning over and speaking to him. I went 
back, and found that it was the venerable Judge 
P., overwhelmed with anxiety and sorrow. He 
was expressing his fear that for one so old, who 
had lived so many scores of years without God, 
there was no help. Dr. Wayland was most ten- 
derly pointing him to the boundless mercy of 
God in Christ Jesus." 

Into the prayer-meeting and the Sunday ser- 
vices of the church over which he was holding 
^ Memoir^ vol. ii. p. 216. 



LAST YEARS. 131 

pastoral care, Dr. Wayland brought an added 
fervor of spirit. He lifted his audience to his 
own high level of devotion. The solemnity 
was at'tiraes unutterable. Silence, which veiled 
thoughts and feelings too deep for tears or 
speech, was most expressive of what Divine 
power filled the place. His prayers, his reading 
of the Scriptures, his talks and his sermons, all 
revealed the fact that over his own soul the 
jjower of an endless life had come as it seldom 
comes to any preacher. If ever a man rose to 
the height of a great religious occasion, that 
man was Dr. Wayland in this religious move- 
ment. 

But he did it at cost of strength which could 
never be repaired. In a letter to one of his sons 
he says, " I am now in my sixty-third year. Not 
many more birthdays await me. I have on a 
few occasions used my brain pretty hard, and I 
sometimes fear that it will never be wholly re- 
stored to its former power. But this is all as 
God wills. I have nothing; to do with it." His 
physician, watchful of the effects of such bur- 
dens on his strength, of such strain upon mind 
and body, noticed increasing feebleness, and 
urged him to give up so exhausting cares. He 
had taken no respite save a short visit to Sara- 
toga, interrupted after a few days by the death 
of his friend, Mr. Moses B. Ives. The church, 



132 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

meantime, had urged him to accept the pastorate 
as a permanency. He considered the matter 
carefully, but was conscious that he could not 
wisely continue in this relation. After a year 
and three months of such toil, he laid down his 
temporary pastorate, and was succeeded by tho 
Eev. Dr. Caldwell in June, 1858. 

His biographers have noted two incidental fea- 
tures of this brief ministry, which have endur- 
ing value. First, a practical organization of 
the church for care of the district in which it is 
placed. It is in fact realizing the true parish 
idea. As drawn out by Dr. Wayland, and as 
actually practiced by the church with gratifying 
results, the plan was as follows : — 

" The church and congregation shall be dis- 
tributed, according to their places of residence, 
into twelve districts. 

" A committee of two brethren and two sisters 
shall be appointed annually to the watch care of 
each district. 

" It is expected of such committees : — 

" 1. That they will make it their great ob- 
ject to call the unconverted to repentance ; to 
encourage their brethren and sisters to lead a 
holy and consistent Christian life ; to caution 
them against conformity to the world ; to urge 
them to labor and self-sacrifice for the cause of 
Christ, and to suggest to them appropriate fields 



LAST YEARS. 133 

of labor, so that every one of them may be a 
living member of the body of Christ. 

" 2. That they will be in frequent communi- 
cation with the pastor and keep him informed 
of all matters, in the several districts, which re- 
quire his special attention, particularly where 
there is sickness, affliction, or religious thought- 
fulness and inquiry ; also that they will seek out 
strangers in the congregation, introducing them 
to the pastor, and promoting their acquaintance 
with others. 

" 3. That the committee, or one of them, will 
visit every person committed to their charge, at 
least once in six months. 

"4. That the several committees will meet 
on the evening of Tuesday after Communion in 
October, January, April, and July, to confer 
upon the state of the church, and to devise 
means for its increase in piety and usefulness, 
the pastor presiding. 

" 5. That they shall make report of their 
doings as often as the church shall direct, with 
such suggestions as they think proper for pro- 
moting the piety of the church and the advance- 
ment of Christ's kingdom. 

" It is recommended that the members of the 
church in each district, if practicable, meet once 
a month, or from time to time, at some private 
house, for conference and prayer." 



134 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

The other change which he advocated was in 
the service of song. He had great faith and 
great delight in a true congregational singing as 
a source of spiritual quickening. He had no faith 
and no delight in a vicarious choir performance 
of sacred music. The artistic efforts of fine so- 
prano solos were all lost upon him. He de- 
lighted in the noble hjanns of Watts, was very 
impatient when they were divorced from the old, 
familiar tunes. He made a resolute effort to 
supersede mere choir singing by the singing of 
the congregation. He induced Dr. Lowell Mason 
to come to Providence and address the people 
upon the subject. He was successful in the ef- 
fort. Congregational singing was introduced. 

His temporary pastorate of the First Baptist 
Church was an episode in his great career. 
Episode though it be, yet no measure of the 
man can be taken which does not take it into 
deep consideration. That after thirty years of 
academic labor abundant in educational schemes, 
writing text-books, managing students, he could 
take up and carry on such a pastorate is a mar- 
vel. This brief ministry of Dr. Way land in the 
First Baptist Church has about it something 
apostolic. The true succession is there. Rightly 
it has been said that its triumph was owing in 
great part to the power of the sjyiritual man, 
owing also to the intense and absolute concen- 



LAST YEARS. 135 

tration of effort upon his work. " The moment, 
I assumed the duties of pastor," he says in the 
Reminiscences, " I relinquished every other en- 
gagement and occupation. I laid away my 
manuscripts, put aside all labor for myself, and 
devoted myself to the service of the Gospel." 
He relinquished also his customary reading even 
of reviews. He was a man of one book, and 
that the Bible, during the entire period. He 
was then and till his death living on a high 
table - land of spiritual experience. All his 
words were invested with power drawn from his 
intense spiritual life. After his death, two 
members of the bar were discussing his labors 
during this period, when one remarked, " I do 
not know how it is ; I never felt so towards any 
one else, but I always had a strange sensation of 
awe, whenever I met him or saw him. I do not 
know what it was owing to." "Do you not 
know," replied the other, " why you felt the in- 
fluence of his almost superhuman goodness?" 
The same testimony was given by another emi- 
nent lawyer in almost identical language. " It 
was the most wonderful exhibition of sfoodness 
that I ever saw or conceived of," 

He had succeeded in enforcing the lesson of 
his sermon on the " Apostolic Ministry " by an 
example which taught even more powerfully 
than words. He however laid down one form 



136 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

of labor only to take up another. When he 
undei'took the pastorate, as has been said, he 
gave up every kind of literary work. He had 
left his plough standing in the furrow. He at 
once put his hand to it, and prepared for pub- 
lication his " Sermons to the Churches," which 
appeared in August, 1858. That was followed 
in December by the volume originally entitled 
" University Sermons," but now called " Salva- 
tion by Christ." Two sermons on the "Recent 
Revolutions in France " were omitted, and two 
new ones written during his recent pastorate, 
were inserted in their stead. 

In 1858 an invitation was given him to be- 
come president of a university just established, 
and which gave promise of large usefulness. 
His reply shows that he was fully conscious of 
having overtasked his powers, while such an 
offer to him at over threescore shows the com- 
manding position he had gained among Ameri- 
can educators. 

The main labors of the years 1859 and 1860 
were put forth in revision of his text-book on 
moral science. Abandoning his first plan of 
reconstructing it and making a new volume, he 
rewrote those chapters or portions which, in his 
view, needed different statements or enlarge- 
ment.^ 

^ Notably his views on war. 



LAST YEARS. 137 

On his sixty-fifth birthday he wrote to his 
son: — 

" I am this day sixty-four years old. What 
remains to me, aud how much, is known only to 
Him who will do all things aright. I should 
like to bear my testimony fully on human 
rights,^ and to labor at some other things that 
may be useful ; but if I do not, some one else 
will be commissioned, who will do it better. I 
am in the midst of that subject now, and I ask 
your prayers that I may be enabled to treat it 
properly. I proceed slowly. It is difficult to 
state articulately truth that is so simple, and to 
state it so as to impress man. 

" However, I make some progress. I hope I 
have been directed to do it so as to aid Christ's 
little ones. The more I think of it, the more 
unextinguishable is my abhorrence of oppres- 
sion, especially of our own slavery." 

Dr. Wayland undertook to maintain the 
weekly service of the First Baptist Church 
on Wednesday evenings, during the summer 
months of the year 1859, instead of having it 
suspended, as had been the custom. He gave 
at the time a series of expository disourses on 
the Epistle to the Ephesians. It was a costly 
series for him ; he should rather have been tak- 

^ Alluding to the chapter in his Moral Science which dis- 
cusses that subject. 



138 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

ing a needed rest and vacation, but, as he said, 
" I have never learned to amuse myself." The 
audiences which gathered to hear him, in spite 
of summer heat, were large. But he labored 
in the unfolding of his subject. 

There was noticeable a loss of his former 
power in such services. It was only the indica- 
tion of more serious trouble to come. The work 
of revising the chapters on slavery in the Moral 
Science, the responsibility of which the growing 
public excitement on the question made more 
stringent, came directly upon this exhaustion, 
and early in the spring of 1860, the symptoms 
of paralysis appeared. He himself noticed that 
his " thinking powers were in some way disor- 
dered," that his " speech was affected. Some 
words I could not pronounce without effort, and 
my organs would not obey me without a special 
act of the will, and then only imperfectly." . . . 

" It was necessary for me to answer a note. I 
found it impossible to write as usual, or in fact 
more than barely legibly. I could not keep on 
the line, nor command my hand so as to form the 
letters distinctly.. My first attempt could not, I 
think, be understood. I tried a second time, and 
by writing slowly, and with constant attention 
of the will to every letter, succeeded a little bet- 
ter, but only a little. I at once perceived that 
something was the matter with my brain. I took 



LAST YEARS. 139 

medical advice. ... I soon saw Dr. Jackson of 
Boston. He told me, contrary to all my expec- 
tation, that it would take eighteen months or two 
years before I could be restored. During this 
interval of enforced leisure, Dr. Wayland wrote 
out the Reminiscences. This, together with the 
" Introduction " to the " Life of Trust," George 
Miiller's autobiography, was his only mental 
occupation. 

From the beginning, Dr. Wayland had been 
a close observer of the antislavery agitation. As 
it waxed hotter and hotter, his feeling was roused. 
His views of the duties of an American citizen 
would not suffer him to bury himself in his liter- 
ary projects, and hold himself aloof from active 
participation in the coming struggle, whose issue 
in internecine strife he foresaw. In the spring 
of 1854, at a meeting of the citizens of Provi- 
dence called to enter solemn protest against the 
passing of the so-called Nebraska bill, he made 
a speech published in all the leading northern 
newspapers. The points he made against the 
bill were all taken on the broad ground that it 
was flagitious to establish slavery throughout all 
the territories concerned. " I protest," he said, 
" against this bill in the first place, because it 
proposes to violate the great elementary law, on 
which not only government, but society itself is 
founded, — the principle that every man has a 



140 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

rigbt to himself. Second, as an American citi- 
zen, I protest against this bill. Third, as a citi- 
zen of a free state, I protest against this bill. 
Fourth, I protest against it, as a Christian." 

This address fixed Dr. Wayland's position as 
one of the great leaders in the trying times that 
were to follow. The " National Era," the organ 
of the prominent antislavery men, " declared that 
no such specimen of compact logic had been ad- 
dressed to the American people since the death 
of Daniel Webster." Up to this time, he had 
been in correspondence with many of the better 
and sounder thinking men of the south. It is 
true, as an eminent Baptist minister in one of 
the border States said, that " the southern people 
would hear Dr. Wayland, after they had ceased 
to hear any other northern man." But the tem- 
per toward him changed after this address. He 
was denounced, and his text-books excluded from 
use in southern literary institutions. 

His private correspondence during this period 
discloses even more fully the attitude of his 
mind. From the moment of its passage he had 
an intense and outspoken abhorrence for the 
Fugitive Slave Law. When under that law in 
the summer of 1854, Anthony Burns, a fugitive 
slave, was on trial in Boston, the danger was 
that the opposition to it would break over all 
bounds. The court-house, virtually in chains, was 



LAST YEARS. 141 

guarded like a prison, and slavery, like a gigan- 
tic Shylock defying the outraged sentiment of 
the community with its appeals to the cruel 
" bond," proclaiming as its justification, " I stand 
here for law," all this had excited the minds of 
the New England people to a perilous degree. 
It was, however, characteristic of Dr. Wayland 
to write to his son as follows : — 

" Keep down your passions ; pray for the 
country ; try to look as patiently as possible' upon 
wrong-doers. In the meantime, proclaim the 
principles of right, their obligation and suprem- 
acy, and nerve men to be willing to suffer loss 
in consequence of them. What is wanted is to 
extend and deepen the feeling of resistance to 
oppression, and of determination at "all hazards 
to be free from participation in it. When this 
is universal, united, and moral, nothing can with- 
stand it, and the agents to carry it on will soon 
appear. Do not allow yourself in strong excite- 
ment, but rather lift up the case with both hands, 
and all your heart, to the Judge of all the earth ; 
plead his promises and his perfections, and wait 
for the indications of his providence. This seems 
present duty. Write, publish, enjoin the peo- 
ple ; direct the present feeling in proper chan- 
nels. This is all I see at present." 

In the same vein he writes to a lawyer, his 
former pupil. He had disapproved of the ex- 



142 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

tremes of denunciation to wliich the earlier abo- 
litionists had been addicted ; he was now solici- 
tous to have the just and growing opposition to 
slavery make no mistakes. He had done much 
to create an intelligent and solid antislavery sen- 
timent. He was now concerned to guide its 
manifestations in proper channels. 

" The times look grave. I hope that the spirit 
of the North is at last aroused. It seems to me 
that the thing to be done is not to be committed 
to any rash or sudden measure, but to deepen, 
extend, and unite the antislavery feeling. I 
never before have been deeply moved by any 
political question. May God direct it all to the 
advancement of truth and righteousness ! Do 
not be anxious to take extreme, but rather solid 
ground, and thus carry all sober men with you. 
..." I want the spirit of freedom and sense 
of right extended in every direction ; not by vio- 
lence that cannot be defended, but by showing 
the right, and keeping people out of the wrong. 
I never knew anything so intensely and cumula- 
tively abominable. It is a matter of deep and 
anxious thought. You should study it carefully, 
and make up your mind on all points, so that if 
a time comes for action, you may be prepared 
with good reasons for yourself and others." 

Meantime the Republican party had been 
formed with John C. Fremont as its candidate 



LAST YEARS. 143 

for the presidency. With this party he at once 
identified himself, casting- his vote for its candi- 
dates. He watched the progress of the cam- 
paign with profound solicitude. He hailed, in- 
deed, the appearance of this party as a hopeful 
sign. In June, 1856, he had written to Hon. 
C. G. Loring, Boston : " Since I saw you, I 
have thought of but one subject, — the condition 
of the Northern States. We have neglected the 
sighing of the captive, and said that slavery was, 
after all, a small matter ; and God is giving us 
a taste of it, that we may see how we like it our- 
selves. The iron already enters my soul. I feel 
that we are governed, not by law and the ex- 
pression of the universal conscience of the na- 
tion, but by bowie-knives, bludgeons, and the 
lash. I hope that the conscience and love of 
liberty in this people will be roused. 

" You mentioned a thought to me, to which I 
attach great importance ; it is the formation of 
some plan of concert among the Free States. We 
must have concert, and act upon a plan. It 
may require some time and labor and sacrifice, 
but it is worth them all. 

" But amidst all this confusion God reigns, 
and the wrath of man shall praise Him, and the 
remainder of wrath He will restrain. I try to 
uphold my hopes for my country by falling back 
on the character of God. There only is our 
trust." 



144 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

The result of the election in no way dispirited 
him. He was wont to seek for general princi- 
ples to guide him in his conduct, and as supports 
when human effort had done its best. His sup- 
port in this case was found in the belief that 
God's providence is nowhere more conspicu- 
ously manifest than in its watch over the inter- 
ests of truth and righteousness. This article in 
Ms creed was inwrought into his life. All his 
correspondence shows how much he made of the 
Psalmist's view of God, as a Refuge, a Shield 
and Buckler, a Strong Tower, and Kock of De- 
fence. 

To the Rev. Dr. Bartol he wrote, after the 
election had resulted in the choice of Buchanan, 
November 17, 1856 : — 

" Well, the election is over, and I am satisfied. 
We have at last a North. It is an expression 
of decidedly changed public opinion. We have 
now a basis of operations, and have only to be 
united, to keep alive the moral sentiment of the 
people, to diffuse light, and to gain the next tier 
of States, and the result is sure. If Fremont 
had gone in with new and undisciplined men, 
and a Senate and a House against him, we should 
have been broken up. Now I think the chances 
of freedom are good, God prosper the right ! " 

Through all the four years of Buchanan's ad- 
ministration, he watched the course of public af- 



LAST YEARS. 145 

fairs closely. Deeply absorbed in his temporary 
pastorate as he was, suffering from the prostra- 
tion which came uj)on tiim in consequence of his 
labors, and then resting from them in enforced 
leisure, there does not appear in his correspon- 
dence much allusion to the times. He spoke 
of John Brown's attempt at Harper's Ferry as 
madness, but did justice to the " bravery, cool- 
ness, and evident sincerity of the old captain." 
He thought the result would be to " raise the 
tone of antislavery feeling sevei'al degrees higher 
throughout the North." 

The nomination and election of Abraham Lin- 
coln in 18G0 received his hearty support. He 
was then quietly resting from his overtasked 
condition of mind and body. But that he was 
all alive to the issues involved in that election, 
gathering solemnity with every hour, is indi- 
cated in the following extract from a letter to his 
son. " Since the evening of the 6th [Novem- 
ber, 1860], I have breathed more freely. It is 
plain that the only constitutional party is the 
Republican. Nothing would be acceptable to 
the South but our entire submission, that we 
should become slaves. This we are not yet 
ready for. It is a question, not of black, but 
of white slavery." 

Dr. Wayland had publicly and frequently an- 
imadverted upon war as in many cases not only 



146 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

an evil of incalculable extent, but as needless. 
He had warmly advocated arbitration as the 
true mode of settling International disputes. 
With such views he had held for some years 
the presidency of the American Peace Society. 
He, however, had no hesitation as to the duty 
of the North in the awful crisis of 1861. The 
following letter to Hon. Lafayette Fostei", of 
Connecticut, is eminently characteristic of him, 
especially his words, " TJie best place to meet 
a difficulty is just where God puts it. If we 
dodge it, it will come in a worse place.'^ 

" It is one of the most wicked things, I fear, 
that God ever looked upon. It is a legitimate 
effect of slavery. The prostitution of conscience 
in one thing leads to its universal prostitution. 
. . . Well, what is to be done ? I dare not 
pray for any one thing, only that a just and holy 
God would glorify himself, and deliver the op- 
pressed, and show himself in favor of justice, by 
giving strength to right and to those who pre- 
serve it. In looking for this, I have not for- 
gotten you. . . . 

" Can it be doubted on which side God will 
declare himself? Can we doubt that, if we 
look to him in faith, he will bring forth judg- 
ment unto victory? If you want to see how 
God looks upon oppression, read the ninety-fifth 
Psalm. I hope all our friends will continue firm. 



LAST YEARS. 147 

and sacrifice no principle for present advantage. 
The best place to meet a difficulty is just where 
God puts it. If we dodge it, it will come in 
a worse place. May God grant you wisdom ! 
Look to Him, and lean upon Him in confidenee 
and earnest faith." 

From the time the terrible struggle opened in 
the attack on Fort Sumter to the close t)f the 
war, he was thoroughly alive, active, and obser- 
vant of every phase. The deeper the country 
was plunged into its throes for existence, the 
more undaunted was his faith in Divine Provi- 
dence. He foresaw with remarkable clearness 
what the contest would ultimately involve. The 
Emancipation Proclamation took him by no sur- 
prise, as the following extract from a letter to 
his son, dated January 18, 1861, will show : — 

" God is about to bring slavery forever to an 
end. He has taken it into his own hands, and 
allowed the South to have its own way. They 
proclaim slavery as a most religious thing, for 
which they are willing to die. God is taking 
this way to free us from complicity, and to let 
them try it by themselves. Greater madness 
never existed. But ' the Lord is known by the 
judgment which he executeth ; the wicked is 
snared in the work of his own hands.' " 

Holding such views of the Divine Providen- 
tial control over events, he accepted the related 



148 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

doctrine of intercessory prayer. He believed 
simply and with his whole soul in God, not 
less as the Hearer and the Answerer of prayer, 
than as the Creator and Ruler of the Universe. 
This was one of the characteristic things about 
his whole Christian life. Philosophical or sci- 
entific objections to this view of prayer, never 
seem to have in any way troubled him. He 
was familiar with them, of course, but they 
never for a moment paralyzed the force or 
abated one jot the intensity of his belief in 
the power of prayer to secure dii*ectly blessings 
for the nation as for the individual. In all 
this crisis of the national life this belief comes 
to the front. He had the greatest admiration 
for the character of Cromwell. He believed 
in his sincerity as well as his ability. He had 
the Cromwellian spirit in the matter of prayer 
as fully as in that of the wielding of the sword. 
Hence he was constantly engaged in efforts to 
promote the prayerful spirit in the souls of 
Christian men. At the request of the Execu- 
tive Committee of the American Tract Society, 
at Boston, a tract on " Prayer for the Country " 
was prepared by him. To a member of Con- 
gress he wrote : — 

" Why could not you, and one or two whom 
you might know, meet in private for prayer? I 
do not think much of prayer meetings for such 



LAST YEARS. 149 

objects in a place where it may be [thought] 
for bunkum, though I would encourage calling 
upon God in every reasonable and devout form ; 
but for myself I enjoy such things most with a 
congenial few in a private chamber, the doors 
being closed." 

Again to a chaplain in the army : — 
" I have great faith in the prayer of the poor 
down-trodden Africans held in bondage, dejirived 
of the privilege of reading the word of salva- 
tion, who cry day and night unto Him." 
To his sister in the same strain : — 
" As to public matters, I have very little to 
say, except it be to bless God for his repeated 
appearances in our behalf. I hardly dare read 
newspapers ; in fact for several years I have not 
seen the time when I read them so little as now. 
I am always apprehensive of defeat and slaugh- 
ter ; or if victory is given to us, the death of men 
who have made themselves enemies, but to whom 
I have no feeling of enmity, is sad beyond any- 
thing that I can express. I cannot get these 
things out of my mind, and they prevent me from 
sleeping. I say. Lord, how long f Shall the 
sword devour forever ? Say to the Destroying 
Angel, ' It is enough ; put up thy sword into its 
sheath.' I beseech you, pray without ceasing 
for this beloved country, for friends and ene- 
mies ; that God would give these latter better 
minds." 



150 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

In the charities which sprang from the neces- 
sities of the war, its Sanitary and Christian Com- 
missions, and in the efforts to educate the negroes 
as they came under the cognizance of the army, 
the philanthropic spirit of Dr. Wayland found 
ample means of expressing itself. There was no- 
thing he could do as a citizen, to sustain the cause 
of the North, which he left undone. He would 
march with a regiment of troops to their embar- 
kation, and send them forth with the benediction 
of his prayer ; he would use his pen in writing 
tracts ; he would give his counsel to chaplains and 
members of Congress ; he would preside at meet- 
ings of the Christian Commission ; in short, dur- 
ing the four years' terrible struggle it was the ab- 
sorbing thing with him. It stirred his religious 
being to its depths, it enlisted his intellectual 
nature in thought upon the issues involved. 
From beginning to end of the long strife, he had 
never faltered. In its darkest day, his confi- 
dence in God kept him serene. He was always 
patient under the reactionary influences of our 
many reverses. The very fact that he had up 
to this time stood somewhat aloof from political 
parties ; that he had on occasion, as in the case of 
the Mexican war, not hesitated to declare his in- 
dependence of all parties united in its support ; 
that his patriotism was not blind devotion to his 
country, "■ right or wrong," — all this lifted the 



LAST I'EAES. 151 

loyal devotion of Dr. Wayland to his country, 
in the time of her deadly peril, into magnificent 
distinctness, and drew from men of all parties the 
profoundest homage. The freedom from every 
thing like political partisanship, and the firm de- 
votion to his great doctrine of human rights, the 
long antagonism to slavery, and the unswerving 
support of the war for our national existence, gave 
him a towering position in his city and his State. 
The city was proud of him, the State was proud 
of him. His life since the resignation of the pres- 
idency, his great activity in labors philanthropic 
and religious, had endeared him, where before he 
had been only admired. The feeling of the com- 
munity toward him had a conspicuous and most 
impressive exhibition in an incident which oc- 
curred when all was over and the nation had 
been saved. 

The tidings of the assassination of President 
Lincoln had fallen as lightning from heaven upon 
the nation the morning of that woful 15th of 
April, 1865. For a time all alike were stunned 
and bewildered by the awful stroke, and then 
slowly woke to the solemnity of the dreadful 
crisis. The citizens of Providence, as indeed 
of every community, throughout the early hours 
of that agonizing day, gathered here and there 
in groups, with bated breath discussing the ter- 
rible event. Slowly the conviction o-rew and 



152 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

took shape that some expression must be given to 
the pent-up anguish of the lamenting city. But 
who could meet the crisis with fitting words? 
To whom could the citizens turn in the hour 
of their desolation for the thoughts which would 
uphold, and for the counsels which would con- 
sole and guide them in this day of calamity 
and woe. The instinctive feeling was that Dr. 
Wayland should be sought for this high occa- 
sion and solemn office. 

Later in the afternoon of the same day, a 
gentleman called in behalf of the citizens of 
Providence to request him to attend and address 
a public meeting in the evening. Dr. Wayland 
was compelled to decline this invitation, feeling 
his strength at that time inadequate to the effort. 
The gentleman then said, " Will you address 
them if they will come to your house ? " This re- 
quest he could not refuse. Accordingly, not far 
from nightfall a body of citizens, numbering 
about fifteen hundred, led by a band of music, 
climbed the steep hill, and gathered about the 
platform which had been erected near the corner 
of his house. The evening shadows had been 
slowly gathering, and the falling rain made the 
gloom more palpable. After a prayer by the 
Rev. Dr. Caswell, Dr. Wayland rose to address 
for the last time his fellow-citizens. Of his ap- 
pearance at that place and hour the late Profes- 



LAST YEARS. 153 

sor Diman, himself an eye-witness of the impres- 
sive scene, has eloquently said : " Should Rhode 
Island ever erect a statue to the noblest Roman 
whose name is written in her history, let the 
cunning hand of the sculptor chisel him as he 
stood that night, and by his own door, his gray 
locks waving in the wind, but with eye un- 
dimmed and natui-al force unabated, bidding his 
fellow-citizens be of good cheer, for the Lord on 
high was mightier than the voice of n)any waters, 
— his words finding fit response in the solemn 
burden of the Psalm that swelled through the 
leafless branches against the overhanging black- 
ness of the heavens." 

In his address, Dr. Wayland first dwelt upon 
the great martyr. For the character and ser- 
vices of Lincoln, he had a lofty appreciation. 
These he dwelt on in brief but fitting eulogy. 
Then he gave utterance to what seemed to him 
the lessons of an hour pregnant with moral 
issues, vast and far-reaching, and the address 
fitly closed with words of sublime trust, of 
serene confidence in God, the Almighty Ruler, 
and of thanksofivins: for what had been wrouo-ht 
out under the leadership of the martyred dead. 
He lifted his audience with him to this high 
plane of hope and comfort. It was an impres- 
sive tribute to his moral power, to his command- 
ing influence, that as the great throng dispersed 



154 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

slowly, not one there but felt that somehow the 
dark cloud had been pierced with light and the 
awful burden lessened. This spontaneous turn- 
ing to Dr. Wayland on the part of his fellow- 
citizens as the one man in all that city of thou- 
sands from whose lips they could have counsels 
adequate to such a crisis, consolation amid such 
woe, hopes under such a stroke, was the crown 
of that long, laborious, and lofty career as a 
citizen of Rhode Island. 

Up to the very close of his life, he kept at 
woi'k. His correspondence was very large. All 
sorts of questions touching cases of conscience 
or of Church discipline, points of moral science 
or of Christian doctrine, were sent him, often by 
unknown correspondents. They were answered. 
They added no little to the work of his busy 
pen. No sooner had he recovered from the ill- 
ness of 1860 than he turned at once to author- 
ship. In 1863, he published a small treatise 
entitled " Letters on the Ministry of the Gos- 
pel." Evidently they were the immediate fruit 
of the pastorate, in which he had labored so suc- 
cessfully. Exceptions were taken to the tone 
of the work as too darkly portraying the actual 
Christianity of the churches. An incident in 
connection with the publishing of the letters is 
truly illustrative of their author. It is recorded 
by a clergyman, a much valued friend. 



LAST YEARS. 155 

" As I was sitting with him one day, not long 
since, in his study, he conversed very freely, 
with the tears rolling down his face, concerning 
the ungracious reception which had been ac- 
corded by the ministry, to his honest and ear- 
nest attempt to raise the type of piety among his 
brethren, and to bring about a more thorough 
preaching of the Gospel. Never can I forget 
the tone of amazement and sadness in which he 
raised his voice, at the same time lifting his 
clasped hands and tearful eyes heavenward, and 
exclaimed: 'My God! Thou kno west all things, 
— Thou knowest I have spoken the truth in re- 
gard to the condition of religion among us, but 
my dear brethren will not receive it from thy 
unworthy servant.' Then suddenly turning to 
me, with the smile peculiar to him, he said, 
' But, my son, we must not expect to be above 
our Lord. Perhaps when I 'm in my grave, 
God will shov/ them that I was right.* " 

During the winter of 1863-64, casually open- 
ing the life of Chalmers, Dr. Wayland's early in- 
terest in the great Scottish divine was rekindled, 
and he read once more the well-known biography 
by Dr. Hanna. His visit to Dr. Chalmers dur- 
ing his trip to England, and the personal ac- 
quaintance which followed, had deepened the ad- 
miration for this foremost S(!otch preacher. It 
occurred to him that a shorter volume than Dr. 



156 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Hanna's biography, setting forth the " distinctly- 
Christian and evangelical labors " of Dr. Chal- 
mers, in which, indeed, he thought the real great- 
ness of Chalmers lay, would illustrate and enforce 
his own teachings in the " Letters on the Chris- 
tian Ministry." He accordingly prepared and 
published in 1864 " A Memoir of the Christian 
Labors, Pastoral and Philanthropic, of Thomas 
Chalmers." But Dr. Wayland's labors were 
fast coming to their close. In 1865, he pub- 
lished in the "American Presbyterian and Theo- 
logical Review" one article on John Foster's 
celebrated letter on the " Doctrine of Future 
Punishment," and another on the " Ministry of 
David Brainard." The revision of the " Moral 
Science," was also completed, and then his busy 
pen had finished its work. 

To the last, however, he was engaged in phil- 
anthropic efforts of the humblest type, as well 
as of the greatest public importance. While he 
was writing of Chalmers's labors in the Free 
Church, at St. John's and St. Andrew's, he 
taught a class in the Sabbath-school of the colored 
church on Meeting Street, near his residence. 
The heat of the summer of 1865 made the labors 
he was putting forth still more exhausting. Fee- 
ble as he was, he went on September 5 to attend 
a meeting for the organization of the " Cushing 
Institute," at Ashburnham, Mass., an academy 



LAST YEARS. 157 

of high grade founded by his brother-in-law, 
Thomas P. Gushing, of Boston. Chosen presi- 
dent of the Board, at the request of his associ- 
ates, he gave his views as to the course of studies 
demanded in such an institution. 

" He mentioned particularly reading, spelling, 
penmanship, music, grammar, rhetoric, geogra- 
phy, arithmetic, geometry, algebra, trigonome- 
try, natural philosophy, botany, physiology, 
agriculture, drawing, bookkeeping, intellectual 
and moral philosophy, political economy, and 
the science of government. In this plan neither 
ancient nor modern languages found a place. 

" The scholars were to be carefully instructed 
in the use of their mother tongue. He would 
have no classes preparing for college, on the 
ground that an arrangement of that kind might 
foster distinctions, excite jealousies, and pro- 
duce an unhappy effect on those students who 
should confine themselves to the English studies. 
Besides, he had observed that in schools where 
the classics are taught they receive undue honor 
and attention. On this point he spoke at length 
and with great earnestness. He believed that 
the Gushing Institute would better subserve its 
design by giving instruction in the English 
branches only." 

His last appearance in public was at a meet- 
ing of the Warren Association in Providence. 
He was present at all the sessions except those 



158 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

held in the evening. The regular business of 
the association had been finished on Thursday 
morning, September 14, when Dr. Wayland was 
asked, " Will you address the association, if we 
decide to hold an afternoon service ? " He con- 
sented to the arrangement, and it was evident 
that he was deeply interested in the proposition. 
He hurried to the church after the brief inter- 
mission, and was in his seat before the meeting 
was called to order. When he rose to speak, 
his words had the profound earnestness, but also 
the deep tenderness, he knew so well how to 
blend in such addresses. He did not know, and 
his brethren could not know, that it was the last 
time his voice would ever be heard as an " am- 
bassador of Christ." But his last counsels to 
his brethren could not have been more suffused 
with the " spiritual mind," nor more in keeping 
with the Christian career so soon to end. 

The debility of which he had been complain- 
ing for some months previous now rapidly in- 
creased. On Friday, September 22, he took a 
walk as usual, but his companion noticed an un- 
wonted silence. His walks had been the occasions 
on which his conversation flowed most freely. 
On the day following, his weakness was so great 
that he could with difficulty sign his name. To 
an intimate Christian friend, who was by his 
bedside on Sunday evening, he uttered his 
thoughts in view of the approaching end. 



LAST TEARS. 159 

" I feel that my race is nearly run. I have 
indeed tried to do my duty. I cannot accuse 
myself of having neglected any known obliga- 
tion. I see all this avails nothing. I plead no 
dependence on anything but the righteousness 
and death of Jesus Christ. I have never en- 
joyed the raptures of faith vouchsafed to many 
Christians. I do not undervalue these feelings, 
but it has not pleased God to bestow them upon 
me. I have, however, a confident hope that I 
am accepted in the Beloved." 

On Monday, a bright September sun was shin- 
ing, and he was tempted to rise and go once 
more into the garden, in which every tree had 
been set out by his own hands, and in which 
every plant had been placed under his direction 
or by his own act. He wished to visit the garden 
as a dear friend. In that, and in the one con- 
nected with the president's house, he had passed 
many of his happiest hours. No wonder that he 
wanted once more to see the outer world, and 
take, it may be, a farewell of it. From that hour 
his illness grew in severity. On Tuesday morn- 
ing he was stricken with paralysis. Once, by a 
look of affectionate intelligence, and the answer, 
"Yes," to his oldest son's question, "Do you know 
me, father," he showed that his mind was still 
under his control. But unconsciousness immedi- 
ately supervened. His relatives were all sum- 
moned. " On Saturday afternoon, September 



160 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

80, 1865, at twenty minutes before six, his wife, 
his three sons, his sisters, and the wife of one of 
his sons, stood by his bedside. It was apparent 
that a change was at hand. His daughter, seeing 
that the end was near, gently laid her hand upon 
his cheek. He opened his eyes with an expres- 
sion of entire consciousness, the same, exactly, 
that his children had so often seen on his face in 
the study, as he looked up from his Bible, and 
of perfect intelligence, but an intelligence not of 
this world. Then he closed them, and all was 



over 



" 1 



The next morning, that of Sunday, the toll- 
ing of the bell of the First Baptist Church 
announced to the city the event of his decease. 
The public journals, the associations of Baptist 
ministers in Boston and New York, the alumni 
of the college, hastened to pay their tributes of 
respect for his excellent character, eminent ser- 
vices, and blessed memory. The funeral took 
place on Wednesday morning, from the church 
where he had been a worshiper so long, and in 
whose pulpit he had so often stood. It was 
attended by " the Corporation and Faculty of 
the University, by the delegates chosen by the 
Baptist ministers of Boston, by men of emi- 
nence in literature, in science, in political station, 
by citizens of Ehode Island, and by residents 
of remote states." 

^ Life, vol. ii. p. 361. 



LAST YEARS. 161 

The services were simple. Prayer was offered 
and the Scriptures read by Rev. Dr. S. E. Cald- 
well, pastor of the church. An address was 
made by Rev. Dr. Caswell of the university, 
between whom and Dr. Wayland had existed 
an unbroken and close intimacy of more than 
twenty years. Then, after a closing prayer by 
Rev. Dr. Swaini, the remains were borne to the 
old " North Burying Ground." There, amid the 
graves of those he had loved and honored, his 
own last resting-place had been chosen, and there 
he was buried. 

On the Sunday following the funeral, sermons 
commemorating Dr. Wayland's life and ser- 
vices were preached from pulpits in Providence, 
Boston, New York, and elsewhere. They were 
preached by clergymen of widely differing views. 
It was fitting that he, whose spirit was so catho- 
lic, should have this tribute. The series of com- 
memorations w^as worthily closed by an address 
to the alumni of the college at the Commence- 
ment next ensuing, September 4, 1866. This 
discourse was given by Professor George Ide 
Chace, of the University, who had been one of 
his colleagues in the Faculty since the early days 
of Dr. Wayland's presidency, and who had 
known him during the intervening years in daily 
and familiar intercourse, — the intercourse of 
friends as well as colleagues. 



CHAPTER VI. 

DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 

With his resignation of the presidency of 
Brown University, Dr. Wayland's active career 
as an educator ended. His entrance upon it had 
not been his original aim. That aim had been 
the ministry of the Gospel. He expressed in 
later years the conviction that he had erred in 
leaving the pulpit for the presidential chair. 
Any adequate survey of what he accomplished 
in the cause of education is a sufficient refuta- 
tion of this mistaken judgment. A study of 
his life makes it clear that he had, in the prov- 
idential ordering of his career, what may be 
considered a special training for his work as an 
educator. In fact he was a born teacher. He 
had no desire to acquire knowledge simply to 
furnish his own mind withal. He could not 
truthfully be described as a man with a great 
love of learning for its own sake. His search 
for knowledge was mainly for purposes of im- 
partation. He gained few acquisitions outside 
the circle of studies he was himself teaching. 
While this resulted in making him less the man 



DR. WAYLAKD AS AN EDUCATOR. 163 

of learning, it made him, as often happens, more 
the teacher. The defects of his own early train- 
ing in school left on him a deep and lasting im- 
pression, which he turned to good account. In 
his Reminiscences, after recalling an incident in 
his school-life illustrating the faulty methods of 
teaching then in vogue,^ he makes the comment, 
" From this incident I have learned to convey a 
new idea to the young with the greatest simplic- 
ity in my power, and not to be satisfied until I 
see that they are able to comprehend the radical 
conception without the use of technical terms." 
His four years of tutorship at Union College were 
a direct and efficient preparation for his sub- 
sequent labors. They gave him insight into 
educational problems, they made him familiar 
with the inside working of collegiate institutions, 
they gave him experience in handling classes. 
Added to all this, was the influence upon him 
of two so noted educators as Dr. Nott and 
Pi'ofessor Stuart. With both these men he 
was thrown into relations of unusual intimacy. 
From both of them he gained an enthusiasm in 
the Avork of teaching, and for the cause of edu- 
cation. Moses Stuart was always to him the 
ideal teacher. His training, therefore, for his 
post as an educator was one of uncommon breadth 
and efficiency. The educational period in his 

^ Memoir, vol. i. p. 23. 



164 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

life occupies a middle position. He began his 
life-work as a city pastor. His last labors were 
in and for the Christian ministry. This mid- 
dle period, — the best years of his life, — from 
1827 to 1855, with all their varied occupation 
along lines of educational effort, should now be 
fully considered. Of the outward events con- 
nected with his administration of the presidency 
of Brown University, account has been given 
in the two preceding chapters. His relations 
to collegiate, popular, and theological educa- 
tion should now be detailed, and a more specific 
view given of his work in the professor's chair. 
The salient characteristic of his career as a 
teacher is its progressiveness, his unwillingness 
to rest in outworn methods, his desire to reach 
a higher point in iiniversity training. We find 
that the work at Brown University falls into 
two well marked divisions. Twice he may be 
said to have reorganized the institution : first, 
when in 1827 he was called to its presidency ; 
and again in 1850, when what was called the 
"New System" went into operation under his 
instigation and leadership. 

It is a significant fact that he seems to have 
had in mind from his first official connection 
with the college all the changes which were in- 
troduced in 1850. They were, as proposed in 
1827, too far in advance of the time. "I was 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 165 

deeply impressed with the importance of two 
things : first, of carrying into practice every 
science which was taught in theory ; and, sec- 
ondly, of adapting the whole course of instruc- 
tion, as far as possible, to the wants of the whole 
community. The first seemed to me all-impor- 
tant as a means of intellectual discipline. The 
abstract principles of a science, if learned merely 
as disconnected truths, are soon forgotten. If 
combined with application to matters of actual 
existence, they will be remembered. Nor is this 
all. By uniting practice with theory, the mind 
acquires the habit of acting in obedience to law, 
and thus is brought into harmony with a uni- 
verse which is governed by law. 

" In the second place, if education is good for 
one class of the community, it is good for all 
classes. Not that the same studies are to be 
pursued by all, but that each one should have 
the same opportunity of pursuing such studies 
as will be of the greatest advantage to him in 
the course of life which he has chosen." He 
further remarks on his inability at that time to 
carry these ideas into practice that "they did 
not seem either to the Faculty or the Corpora- 
tion practical, but rather as visionary." But if 
he did not at once succeed in carrying out his 
more advanced views, he in the first decade of 
his presidency transformed the college. He put 



166 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

discipline on a true basis, made it thorough, 
effective, and salutary. He reconstructed the 
teaching of the college, changed its methods 
and its spirit, as well as enlarged its domain. 
He provided those essentials in a college system, 
too commonly regarded as subsidiaries, — a well 
equipped library and laboratories. Above all, 
he infused into it the true spirit of a univer- 
sity, which it has never lost, and by the force of 
which it has gained so high and deserved rank 
among its sister institutions of New England. 
He accomplished all this in the face of oppo- 
sition. It was powerful and prolonged. The 
newspapers were arrayed against him. Public 
addresses were aimed against his plans. He ex- 
ercised patience, kept silence, and waited for 
time to vindicate the wisdom of his methods. 
The opposition was soon overcome. After a year 
or two of suspense, his victory was won. Some 
of his changes are now perhaps superannuated. 
They did their work well in their time, and must 
be judged by the existing exigencies and not by 
the conditions of to-day. His resignation of 
the presidency in 1849 was undoubtedly caused 
by the declining number of students. That 
decline made a financial crisis in the history of 
the college, since it had a very limited endow- 
ment, and was dependent largely for its current 
expenses, then very moderate, on tuition fees. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 167 

But even if the numbers of the students had 
continued to increase, as they did in the early 
years of his work there, it would have been 
wholly unlike Dr. Wayland not to push his 
ideas of reform in collegiate training. The 
" Report to the Corporation of Brown Univer- 
sity on Changes in the System of Collegiate Edu- 
cation " embodies those ideas in the shape in 
which years of thought on the whole subject 
had matured them. The principles on which 
they were founded, the special reasons for adopt- 
ing them in Brown University, have already 
been given in the survey of his career as presi- 
dent. It is here in place, to consider the spe- 
cific plans ^ he proposed in accordance with his 
repeated statement that higher education should 
adapt its instruction to the wants of the whole 
community. 

1. "The present system of adjusting colle- 
giate study to a fixed term of four years, or to 
any other term, must be abandoned, and every 
student be allowed, within limits to be deter- 
mined by statute, to carry on, at the same 
time, a greater or less number of courses, as he 
may choose. 

2. " The time allotted to each particular 
course of instruction would be determined by 
the nature of the course itself, and not by its 

1 Report, pp. 51-53. 



168 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

supposed relation to the wants of any particular 
profession. 

3. " The various courses should be so ar- 
ranged that, in so far as it is practicable, every 
student might study what he chose, all that he 
chose, and nothing but what he chose. The 
Faculty, however^ at the request of a parent or 
guardian should have authority to assign to any 
student such courses as they might deem for his 
advantage. 

4. " Every course of instruction, after it has 
been commenced, should be continued without 
interruption until it is completed. 

5. " In addition to the present courses of in- 
struction, such others should be established as 
the wants of the various classes of the commu- 
nity require. 

6. " Every student attending any particular 
course should be at liberty to attend any other 
that he may desire. 

7. . . . " No student would be under any ob- 
ligation to proceed to a degree, unless he chose. 

8. " Every student would be entitled to a cer- 
tificate of such proficiency as he may have made, 
in every course that he has pursued." 

These were the proposed changes from the 
former system of study in the college. They 
were followed by an outline of courses, fifteen 
in number. The courses in Latin and Greek 



DR. WAYLAND AH AN ED UC ATOM. 169 

were to occupy two years, as also that in Pure 
Mathematics. The covirse in English Language 
and Rhetoric was to occupy but one year, and 
that of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy one 
year. But among these courses was to be one 
on the Science of Teaching, one on the Princi- 
ples of Agriculture, one on the application of 
Chemistry to the Arts, and one on the Science 
of Law. It is evident that Dr. AVayland did 
not put this forth as any scheme of complete 
education. It was simply what he judged could 
be wisely attempted in his own college. He fol- 
lows the outlines of such courses with this re- 
mark : " It by no means is to be taken for 
granted, in a country like our own, that every 
college is to teach the same studies, and to the 
same extent. It would be far better that each 
should consult the wants of its own locality, and 
do that best for which it possesses the greatest 
facilities. Here would arise opportunities for 
diversified forms of excellence ; the knowledge 
most wanted would the more easily become dif- 
fused, and the general progress of science would 
receive an important impulse from every insti- 
tution of learning in our land." 

The Report also advocated a change in the 
terms of support for professoi's. Instead of i^e- 
ceiving from the College Treasurer a fixed sum 
as salary, a given income was to be assigned 



170 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

to each professor on some equitable principle. 
Then the remainder of his compensation was 
to depend upon the fees for his courses from 
students taking them. He further advocated as 
deserving of consideration a system of 2)7-ivat- 
docenten such as is found in German universi- 
ties. Finally he considered the question of aca- 
demic degrees. After unfoldiug the meaning of 
an academical degree and discussing the privi- 
leges conveyed by it, he pursued au inquiry 
into the " statutory requirements which have 
governed colleges and universities in the con- 
fexTing of degrees." In this he confines his 
attention to the universities of Great Britain. 
The preliminary discussion of the subject is 
meagre, and only serves as a basis for indicating 
his views in general. 

1. " The degree of A. M. as well as that of 
A. B. should be made to signify a certain 
amount of knowledge," in other words, be con- 
ferred upon examination and not in course. 

2. For the given amount of Latin, Greek, 
Mathematics, etc., as ordinarily required for the 
A. B. degree, equivalents might be accepted. 

He anticipated an objectioai to this plan in 
its probable efPect in diminishing the amount 
of classical study. As this passage defines his 
position on this question, it should be quoted at 
length. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. Ill 

" If by placing Latin antl Greek upon their 
own mei"its, they are unable to retain their 
present place in the education of civilized and 
Christianized man, then let them give place to 
something better. They have, by right, no pre- 
eminence over other studies, and it is absui'd to 
claim it for them. But we go further. In our 
present system we devote some six or seven 
years to the compulsory study of the classics. 
Besides innumerable academies, we have one 
hundred and twenty colleges,^ in which for a 
large part of the time classical studies occupy 
the labors of the student. And what is the 
fruit? How many of these students read either 
classical Greek or Latin after they leave college? 
If, with all this labor we fail to imbue our young 
men with a love for the classics, is there any 
reason to fear that any change will render their 
position less advantageous ? Is there not rea- 
son to hope, that by rendering this study less 
compulsory, and allowing those who have a taste 
for it to devote themselves more thoroughly to 
classical reading, we shall raise it from its pres- 
ent depression, and derive from it all the ben- 
efit which it is able to confer?" 

It is interesting to note in this connection Dr. 
Wayland's expressed sympathy with the views 
of Herbert Spencer on education. In 1862, he 

1 This was in 1S50. 



172 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

wrote his son, " I have read Herbert Spencer 
through, and some of the essays twice, and have 
read his vohime on education. . . . His book 
will do much to change the opinions of the civ- 
ilized world. . . c As to the worth of knowledge 
he is very strong. Here, he and I are aiming 
at the same thing. I did not expect to see in 

*my day any one with whose views I coidd so 
sincerely sympathize." Later on. Dr. Wayland 
said of the changes in the system of instruction 
at Brown University actually adopted in 1850 
by the Corporation, " they did not go so far as I 
would have chosen, and did not with sufficient 
freedom carry out the principles on which (they) 
were founded. It was partly a compromise be- 
tween the old ideas and the new, and was, per- 
haps, the best arrangement that could be 
adopted." It will put Dr. Wayland's position 
as an advocate of such changes in the collegiate 
course in a clearer light, if the attitude of other 
prominent colleges toward the elective system 
be pointed out. In the University of Vii^ginia 
the scheme of instruction never contemplated 
a fixed and uniform curriculum of study to be 

I pursued by every student alike without discrim- 
ination. The elective method, and no other, 
has been in vogue there from its origin. To 

i that University belongs the honor then of being 
the oldest advocate of election in studies. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 173 

From an elaborate Report to the Board of 
Overseers of Harvard College by President 
Eliot for 1883-84, the following interesting facts 
in the history of elective studies in that institu- 
tion have been obtained. As early as 1824 the 
"Juniors could choose a substitute for thirty- 
eight lessons in Hebrew, and Seniors had a 
choice between Chemistry and Fluxions." From 
that time on for twenty-five years there was a 
tendency to develop the elective system more 
fully. In 1838 " Professor Beck and Professor 
Felton proposed to President Quincy to require 
of all (students) only the classical studies of 
the Freshman year," and enforced their pro- 
posal with the statement that probably " a lib- 
erty of choice will increase the zeal and appli- 
cation of students in the classical departments, 
and raise materially the standard of scholar- 
ship." 1 The Faculty Records show that up to 
the year 1849, the elective system was growing 
in favor.^ 

With the advent of President Sparks in 1849 
there came a reactionary movement, whicli for a 
time impeded the development of the elective 
principle in college studies. He was its decided 
opponent, and for several years it was not only 
held in check, but was seriously curtailed.^ The 

1 Rqxyrt of President Eliot for 1883-84, p. 11. 

2 Ibid. pp. 11-17. 3 j5j^. pp. 13^ 19. 



174 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

expansion of the system into its present propor- 
tions at Harvard University dates from the year 
1865-66. 

Yale College appears to have been much 
slower than Harvard in introducing to students 
the privilege of election. " The present system 
of elective studies extending through Junior and 
Senior years of the college course, was adopted 
in 1876. For many years before that, there 
had been a very limited option open to stu- 
dents." ^ At Princeton College there had been 
some optional studies, but not until President 
McCosh entered on his office in 1868 was 
the elective system pursued to any extent. It 
thus appears that at the time President Way- 
land proposed his "New System" to the Cor- 
poration of Brown University, the University 
of Virginia was the only institution in which 
the plan of elective courses had been thoroughly 
organized. The attitude of Harvard College 
was at that time, under President Sparks, hos- 
tile to its continuance, although a considerable 
body of the professors there were and had been 
for some time earnest advocates of election. 
Neither Yale nor Princeton had introduced it. 
Dr. Wayland was regarded as an iconoclast in 
the matter of study of the classics, notwithstand- 
ing the fact that his ground was precisely that 
^ MS. Letter of Professor Dexter. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 175 

taken by Professor Beck and Professor Felton 
of Harvard College in 1838. Dr. Way land 
must therefore be accorded the credit of taking 
up and pushing the scheme of elective study at 
a time, 1850, when it found favor in no North- 
ern college, and existed only in the University 
of Virginia. He had advocated boldly the adop- 
tion of the elective system. Such words as these, 
"the various courses should be so arranged, that 
in so far as it is practicable, every student may 
study what he chooses, all that he chooses, and 
nothing hut what he chooses,^'' were far in ad- 
vance of what educators of the New Englander 
thought wise. They seem to-day to some of 
the best friends of higher education too extreme. 
But in all our larger institutions the elective 
system is pursued to a greater or less degree, 
and the tendency all the while is toward a wid- 
ening of the plan. In other words, the drift of 
our higher education has been steadily toward 
the principles laid down by Dr. Wayland in his 
" Repoi't on the Changes in the System of Col- 
legiate Education," made to the Corporation of 
Brown University in 1850. These views of edu- 
cation were not on his part the result of read- 
ing, nor of observation. He saw nothing of 
German universities while abroad in 1840. He 
saw little of the English universities, though he 
visited them. He never relied much in form- 



176 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

ing his opinions on what other men had said. 
In constructing his text-books, his research was 
comparatively small. He thought things out 
for himself, cared little for a reputation for 
learning, and in the case of higher education 
trusted mainly to his own observation and ex- 
perience. And yet he seems very accurately 
to have anticipated what would be the type of 
education sought in American colleges. While 
his main work and deepest interest were in the 
field of higher education, his position as an 
educator cannot be estimated without reference 
to his efforts for popidar and secondary educa- 
tion. 

No sooner had he assumed the presidency of 
the college than he was appointed chairman of 
a committee of citizens " to whom was referred 
the consideraton of the present school system of 
the town of Providence." The report drawn up 
by him and printed in the " American Journal of 
Education " for July, 1828, discusses the prin- 
ciples on which any system of public schools is 
founded, especially under our form of govern- 
ment, the mode of instruction to be employed, 
the kind of text-books, the need of supervision ; 
in fact it was for the time an exhaustive discus- 
sion of the subject then growing into vast im- 
portance. " It forms," said the editor of the 
" Journal of Education," " a useful document 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 177 

for reference, whether for information relating 
to plans of arrangement for public education, 
or for direct assistance in teaching." 

Dr. Wa^dand's democratic tendency was no- 
where more effectively shown than in his sym- 
pathy with every form of popular education. 
He lost no opportunities for evincing this sym- 
pathy. It was manifested in the very begin- 
ning of his educational career. It lasted to the 
year of his death. It is safe to say that no 
movement in the cause of public education in 
Rhode Island was undertaken without his coun- 
sel. That well-known friend and promoter of 
education, Hon. Henry Barnard, who held in 
Rhode Island from 1843 to 1849 the position of 
Commissioner of Public Schools, testified in the 
" American Journal of Education " to Dr. Way- 
land's active counsel and cooperation " in the 
great work of organizing an efficient system of 
jjublic instruction for Rhode Island." As one 
of the founders and the first president of the 
American Institute of Instruction, he did much 
toward making that body the influential and 
honorable educational society it is to-day. His 
interest in the founding of libraries was con- 
spicuous. One of his first labors as president of 
the college was to place the library on a liberal 
foundation. What that library is to-day, it is 
mainly through his far-sighted efforts. But he 



178 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

believed that towns should have their libraries as 
means of popular education. He assisted in 
founding the Providence Athenaeum, giving the 
address at its opening. He was instrumental, by 
the offer of five hundred dollars towards its found- 
ing, in securing, in the year 1850, a free library 
for the town of Wayland, Mass. As a result of 
this successful movement, an act was passed in 
1851 by the Legislature of Massachusetts, which 
empowered all the towns of the State "to raise 
money by taxation for the support of free town 
libraries." His address at the dedication of the 
Free Academy, Norwich, Conn., in 1856, gives 
in striking form the proof of his interest in 
popular education. " I regard," he said, " with 
special interest the announcement that young 
men are here to be fitted for the practical em- 
ployments of life. ... I look upon the practical 
arts as a great triumph of human intellect. Our 
admiration for this sort of talent is legitimate. 
We do well to revere the genius of Milton and 
Dante and Goethe. But there is talent in a 
cotton-mill as well as in an epic. And I have 
often been deeply impressed, as I have stood in 
the midst of its clattering machinery, with the 
thought, how great an expenditure of mind has 
been required to produce these spindles, looms, 
and engines." Almost the last effort, certainly 
the last journey, of his life, was made in behalf 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 179 

of popular education when in September, 1865, 
he went to Ashburnham, Mass., to assist in 
orsranizinor the Cnshinor Institute. Allusion has 
already been made (page 78) to the request of 
the Hon. J. Forsyth, Secretary of State, that 
Dr. Way land would give his views on the best 
method of utilizing the Smithsonian bequest. 
The two plans most urged were the formation 
of a National Library and the organization of 
some body for scientific research. Neither of 
these seemed to Dr. Wayland fitted to meet the 
full scope of the design of the testator. 

The plan which Dr. Wayland submitted in 
the following October was that of a National 
University, ^ on the ground that this scheme 
would most inure to the benefit of the whole 
country. In defining its functions he said, " The 
popular place to be occupied by such an institu- 
tion would be the space between the close of a 
collegiate education and a professional school. 
. . . The demand for such advanced instruc- 
tion now exists very extensively. A considerable 
portion of our best scholars graduate as early 
as their nineteenth, twentieth, or twenty-first 

^ The recent proposals to establisli a National University at 
Washington, submitted to Congress, invest Dr. Wayland's pro- 
ject with fresh interest. Should they be carried out, it will 
only be one more instance of his great acumen in forecasting 
the future trend of the educational movement in America. 



180 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

years. If they are sufficiently wealthy, they pre- 
fer to wait a year before studying their profes- 
sion. Some travel, some read, some remain as 
resident graduates, and many more teach school 
for a year or two, for the purpose of reviewing 
their studies. They would gladly resort to an 
institution in which their time might be profit- 
ably employed. The rapidly increasing wealth 
of our country will very greatly increase the 
number of such students. 

"The advantages which would result from 
such an institution are various. It would raise 
up and send abroad, in the several professions a 
new grade of scholars, and thus greatly add to 
the intellectual power of the nation. But, es- 
pecially, it would furnish teachers, professors, 
and officers of every grade for all our other in- 
stitutions. " 

No sensible man would think of questioning 
the value of what the Smithsonian Institute has 
accomplished for scientific research. Its praise 
is in all lands. But it may be questioned 
whether, after all. Dr. Wayland's idea of a Na- 
tional University was not broader in its scope 
and more diffusive of educational results over 
the whole country than the project of a library, 
or the institution as organized on its present 
basis. Certain it is that the prosperous career 
of the Johns Hopkins University at Baltimore, 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 181 

founded a generation later, illustrates and con- 
firms the justice of his position as to the need of 
such an institution. 

His views of theological education seemed to 
many of his brethren superficial. In his sermon 
at Rochester on the "Apostolic Ministry," he 
was thought by some to have depreciated the 
necessity for a learned ministry. It is plain 
that he distrusted some of the tendencies of the- 
ological seminaries. On reading the life of Dr. 
Archibald Alexander, he wrote the biographer, 
Rev. James W. Alexander, D. D., of New York, 
a letter expressing his very high regard for both 
the biography and the biograjjher, giving his 
own personal recollections of Dr. Archibald 
Alexander, and closing his letter thus : — 

" I now see why Princeton has made good 
preachers. I agree with your Presbyterian doc- 
trine very well on most points, especially on the 
marked prominence you give to the work of 
Christ. I differ from you in some respects. 
You make the gospel more rectanglar and closely 
reticulated than I do. You see clearly, where 
I only have an opinion. But you make preachers. 
The tendency of seminaries is to become schools 
for theological and philological learning and 
elegant literature, rather than schools to make 
preachers of the gospel. With every year the 
general tendency is in this direction, as I think 



182 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

I have observed. I have thought this of Prince- 
ton. As I would have asked your father, so 
may I ask you, whether he ever observed it and 
feared for this tendency ? " 

This letter began a correspondence between 
the two on this subject, in which their opinions 
were found to be in general accord. Dr. Alex- 
ander, who had exchanged a chair in Princeton 
Seminary for a pulpit in New York city, at 
once and cordially rej)lied to Dr. Wayland's 
letter, saying among other things, " Most heart- 
ily do I assent to your remarks about the literary 
tendencies of our theological seminaries. I feel 
it in my heart. Having left the desk for the 
pulpit, I feel it more." Later he modified 
this opinion somewhat, and wrote Dr. Wayland, 
" Remembering the entire history of Princeton 
I can speak confidently as a witness, though I 
wish to be modest as a judge. On the whole, 
the difference between the style of preaching of 
the first and last students is less marked than I 
thought, till I came coolly to consider it ; and 
yet the tendency is decided toward learned, ele- 
gant, rhetorical sermons. My father saw this, he 
labored against it ; his own practice was against 
it. But I do not know that he ever ascribed the 
evil to seminaries. In my poor opinion the evil 
cannot be laid at the door of seminaries, as such, 
any more than of colleges." 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 183 

It would be unjust to represent Dr. Wayland 
as opposed to theological seminaries. He owed 
too much to the seminary which had given him 
the benefit of the teachings of Moses Stuai-t, to 
take any such attitude. It is plain, however, 
that he would modify the curriculum as gen- 
erally prescribed. He would make such institu- 
tions more schools for Biblical study, and less 
schools of systematic theology. ^ His position in 
regard to qualificativ 'ns for the ministry was 
this : that no church co 'Id rightfully exact of all 
candidates for the sacred office that they should 
have had a specific am unt of literary or theo- 
logical training; that >. xe might be cases in 
which a man with the proper gifts, and these 
trained as best he could, should be admitted at 
once to the ministry. He believed undoubtedly 
in lay preaching. His sermon at Rochester 
makes this clear. His views on the whole sub- 
ject are contained in his Reminiscences. They 
are well worth quoting : — 

" I was said to be opposed to ministerial edu- 
cation because I held that a man with the proper 
moral qualifications might be called to the min- 
istry by any church, and be a useful minister of 
Chi'ist, and that we had no right to exclude such 

^ " I well remember a conversation which I once had with 
Professor Stuart bearing on this point. He wanted to see a 
theological seminary in which nothing should be studied but 
the Scriptures. — Life, vol. i. p. 197. 



184 FEANCIS WAYLAND. 

a man because he had not gone through a nine 
or ten years' course of study. God calls men to 
the ministry by bestowing upon them suitable 
endowments, and an earnest desire to use them 
for his service. Of those thus called, some may 
not be by nature adapted to the prosecution of a 
regular course of study. Many others are too 
old; ',_^^ome are men with .f^imilies. Only a por- 
tion are of an a^e-^^aTif! an .cler conditions which 
will allow them to unde^rtake what is called a 
regular training for the /ministry, tliat is, two or 
three years in an acaden^>ry, four years in college, 
and three years in a ^ Seminary. But does not 
every man require the ^[ixnprovement of his mind, 
in order to preach the j^ospel ? I think he does. 
His faculties, all of th em, are given to him to be 
used in the service of God, and the more he can 
do to render them t efficient, the more he will 
have to consecrate to that service. But this is 
to be conditioned by the circumstances under 
which he has been placed. A theological semi- 
nary should be so cons tructed as to give the 
greatest assistance to each of these various 
classes of candidates. Sor^ne may be able to take 
a smaller, others a greater amount of study. 
Let each be at liberty to take what he can, and 
then the seminary is at rest. It has done what 
it could. The rest is left to Providence." 

His idea of what should make a preacher was 



DR. WAY LAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 185 

rather high than low. He insisted that every 
man called to the ministry should cultivate his 
powers to the utmost. He placed little stress 
on rhetorical effect ; he deemed too much emo- 
tional appeal weakness rather than strength ; 
he thoroughly disbelieved in having illustration 
usurp the place of discussion. Men who pur- 
sued studies under him with a view to the min- 
istry found him no lenient critic. In fact what 
he contended for was that moral qualifications 
and natural gifts should count for all they are 
worth in decidmg who are called to preach the 
gospel. 

It will tlius be seen that Dr. Wayland's work 
as an educator was moulded by his deep inter- 
est in the common people. He was by nature 
opposed to all artificial class distinctions. He 
disliked them in education as much as in society. 
" We are a middling-interest people," be wrote 
of the Baptists to Rev. Dr. Jeter, and there is no 
better interest." From that stock he had come. 
The memory of his father and mother kept him 
true to it. No man was more fi^ee from all vul- 
gar and cheap declamation against aristocracies. 
But he kept his eyes open always to the latent 
capacities slumbering in the common people. 
He framed his views of education to develop 
these, and at the same time to secure the higher 
education. lie kept steadily before him the 



186 FRANCIS WATLAND. 

nature of republican institutions, and wrought 
out all his plans of education on the principle 
that, whatever system obtained in the Old World, 
American education must consult American in- 
stitutions. The interests of both are insepar- 
ably intertwined. 

Dr. Wayland's work as an educator could 
hardly have been accomplished but for his prac- 
tical experience as a teacher in the class-room. 
That experience deepened his interest in all the 
shifting phases of educational plans. It brought 
to him light in their discussion. He was little 
of a theorist. In education, as in other mat- 
ters, he brought all questions to practical tests. 
But his success as a teacher was so marked that 
his experience was no unsafe guide. It may be 
indeed questioned whether Dr. Wayland in the 
class-room was not on his highest vantage 
ground, or, if this be too extreme a statement, 
whether this was not one of the points at which 
his real greatness could be best measured. It 
was with him a cardinal principle of pedagogics 
that the class should understand that his inter- 
est in the subject was no more vital than theirs. 
" Therefore," he said, " I not only allowed, but 
encouraged, my class to ask questions with ref- 
erence to any portion of the lesson recited, or 
of the lecture delivered." The class-room thus 
immediately became a centre of mental life for 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 187 

the class. The process of question and answer 
kindled the interest of the student in the study. 
To every honest question he listened with con- 
siderate patience, now and then " answering a 
fool according to his folly," but rarely having to 
put down a flippant or hopelessly dull inquirer.^ 
When, on one occasion, while tha class was en- 
gaged wpoii the Evidences of Christianity, a 
student raised objections to the inspiration of 
the Old Testament, and followed up his inquiries 
by saying, *' For instance, take the book of 
Proverbs. Certainly it needed no inspiration to* 
write that portion of the Bible. A man not in- 
spired could have done it as well. Indeed, I 
have often thought that I could write as good 
proverbs myself." " Very v/ell, my son " (so he 
addressed his pupils, in later years at least) ^ 
" perhaps you can. Suppose you make the ex- 
periment. Prepare a few proverbs and read 
them to the class to-morrow. The next.^'' While 
lecturing on the subject of miracles, a member 
of the class, not satisfied with the refutation of 
Hume's argument against miracles which had 
been given, put his objections in this form: 
" W^hat would you say, Dr. Wayland, if I 
stated that, as I was coming up College Street, 
I saw the lamp-post at the corner dance ? " "I 
should ask you where you had been, my son," 
^ Memoir, vol. i. p. 250 et seq. 



188 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

was the reply. But an honest inquirer never 
met with rebuff of any sort. The class-room 
was often made a place of discipline in clearness 
of statement. It was that element in writing 
and speaking which he most highly prized, and 
which he most insisted on in the questions so 
freely allowed to be put him by his classes. He 
introduced a method of recitation which tended 
directly to foster the habit of clear thinking and 
ready utterance on the part of his pupils. The 
student was accustomed " to make out the 
analysis, skeleton, or plan of the lesson to be re- 
cited. He was expected to commence, and with- 
out question or answer, to proceed in his recita- 
tion as long as might be required. The next 
who was called on took up the passage where his 
predecessor left it ; and thus it continued (ex- 
cept as there was interruption by inquiry or 
explanation) until the close." He placed great 
stress on an analytic habit of mind, and equal 
stress on the ability of a student to frame, while 
on his feet, a succinct and clear expression of 
thought. 

More than one jurist of eminence who had 
been among his pupils bore testimony to the 
great gifts he had as a teacher. That of Hon. 
C. S. Bradley, who was chief justice of the 
Supi-eme Court of Rhode Island, sums up in 
few words the great qualities of his teaching. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 189 

" The singular rapidity with which he seized 
upon the strong points of whatever subject was 
under discussion in the class-room, the tenacity 
with which he held all the disputants to the pre- 
cise issue, brushing aside the rubbish of irrele- 
vant and inapposite details and obliging the 
pupil to deal with the vital principles which lay 
at the foundation of the immediate topic under 
consideration, and above all, the constant habit 
of exact and exhaustive analysis which he coun- 
seled and even compelled the pupil to pursue, 
— all this was an admirable preparation for the 
profitable study and successful practice of the 
law." Perhaps there could be no stronger trib- 
ute to a teacher's gifts and methods than this 
testimony of an eminent lawyer. 

Professor George P. Fisher, of Yale Uni- 
versity, one of his most distinguished pupils, 
bears similar testimony.^ " As a teacher, Dr. 
Way land had preeminent gifts. If he did not, 
like Socrates, follow up his pupil with a per- 
petual cross-examination, he set before himself 
the same end, that of eliciting the pupil's own 
mental activity. He aimed to spur him to the 
work of thinking for himself and of thinking 
soundly. He had a spice of humor in his na- 
ture, and this lent an additional zest to his terse, 
colloquial expressions in the class-room.* The 

1 New Englander, vol. xv. p. 139. 



190 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

truth that there is nothing new under the sun, 
as far as the essential traits of man are con- 
cerned, he embodied in the saying that ' human 
nature has very few new tricks.' On one 
occasion he had listened with his usual patience 
to the persistent questioning of a pupil as to 
how we know a certain intuitive truth or axiom. 
At length, his previous answers not having 
silenced the inquirer, he broke out with the em- 
phatic response : ' How ? by our innate inborn 
gumjJtion.^ In these amicable conflicts with his 
pupil, he never took unfair advantage or con- 
tended for victory. On the contrary, he seemed 
desirous, as he really was, to do full justice to 
every objection, and in alluding to writers who 
differed from him, to speak of them with per- 
sonal respect." 

Dr. Wayland carried the function of the 
teacher beyond the mere mental discipline of 
studies pursued. The preparation of his pupils 
for actual life measured for him his responsibility 
as a teacher. He brought, perhaps, less of learn- 
ins: to the class-room than some of his contem- 
poraries. He was never spoken of as a learned 
man in philosophy, or ethics, or political econ- 
omy. He had mastered the essential principles 
in all these departments of knowledge, and was 
abundantly equipped for teaching them. But 
his class-room was made the place where con- 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 191 

stant lessons were given on the conduct of life, 
which, unlike Mr. Matthew Arnold, he made the 
whole and not a fraction of it. On this point, 
President Angell, of Michigan University, him- 
self an accomplished and eminent educator, has 
spoken with equal force and beauty. ^ " But 
extraordinary as were Dr. Wayland's mental en- 
dowments, his greatness and his influence were 
more conspicuously moral than intellectual. His 
imperial will, his ardent love of the simple 
truth, his tender sympathy for the oppressed and 
the suffering, his generosity to the poor, his un- 
conquerable love of soul liberty, his hatred of 
spiritual despotisms, his unflinching devotion to 
duty, his sublime unselfishness, his spirit of un- 
questioning filial obedience to God, his abiding 
faith in Jesus Christ and him crucified, these 
were the great elements of his character, the im- 
pelling forces of that splendid intellect, and the 
sources of his mighty power. He believed with 
all his soul that life is made up of duties, duties 
to man and to God. This idea he was ever hold- 
ing up in all possible lights, and impressing on 
his hearers with all his power. It lent shape 
and coloring to all his instructions as professor, 
and to all his acts as president, lifted the col- 
lege to a lofty plane, and gave earnestness and 
purpose to the lives of his pupils. ... As his 

^ Hours at Home, December, 1865. Article on Dr. Wayland- 



192 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

moral power predominated over his intellectual, 
he was more successful both in investigating and 
in teaching moral than intellectual philosophy. 
The laws of conscience, the heinousness and the 
fatal results of sin, the unchangeabieness of the 
divine laws, the immutableness of right, the 
power of habit, the right of every man to him- 
self and the consequent wrong of human slavery, 
the paramount duty of every man to develop his 
faculties to the utmost, and to live to the glory 
of God, these and kindred topics were discussed 
with such clearness and force, and illustrated so 
variously and so aptly, that we believe it to be 
literally true that no student, however thought- 
less, ever pursued the study of moral philosophy 
under Dr. Wayland, without receiving positive 
moral impressions which remained through life. 
You can hardly find one of his pupils who can- 
not repeat memorable utterances of the teacher, 
which have been to him maxims throughout his 
career." 

What, indeed, to many of his pupils seemed 
the crowning excellence of his teaching was the 
love of truth : to get at the truth upon every 
subject, to live in contact with the truth. He 
had no great reverence for elaborate systems of 
philosophy or of divinity. He never openly or 
flippantly disparaged these monumental struc- 
tures of human thought. But he held himself 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 193 

in entire independence of them, it were, perhaps, 
more truthful to say, too much aloof from them. 
" Young gentlemen, cherish your own concep- 
tions," were his words to one of his classes. A 
friend who was about to take charge of a Bible 
class asked him what commentary he would rec- 
ommend him to use. " Your own eyes, if you 
can see," was the characteristic reply .^ Mental 
independence was, in his view, a cardinal virtue. 
He abhorred everything like slavery. Mental 
bondaofe seemed to him the direct result of too 
great deference to the fathers, to the school-men, 
to the great system-makers in philosophy and 
theology. His pupils felt this. He held them 
largely by this fearless independence of mind. 
Coupling with this freedom from all partisan- 
ship his simple, eager seeking for the truth, we 
see how it could not be otherwise than that he 
should inspire his pupils with the same inde- 
pendence of mind. When he did not, it was 
because some of them were hopelessly environed 
by partisan associations, or made with minds too 
narrow to take in more than adhesion to a party 
or a sect. 

It was characteristic of Dr. Wayland as an 
educator, that he believed it essential to the 
highest and most enduring efficiency of a college 
presidency that the president should be himself 

^ Hours at Home, vol. ii. p. 193. 



194 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

a teacher, and thus come into direct contact with 
the intellectual life of the college. It is cer- 
tainly true that " the academic spirit may and 
should be in living sympathy with the struggles 
which are going forward on the public arena. 
. . . The true academic spirit does not live in 
the air. It does not abide in a region aloof from 
the concerns of mankind in the day that now 
is." ^ Like President Woolsey, in regard to 
whose academic career these words were written, 
Dr. Wayland had labored steadily and success- 
fully to make the academic spirit in his college 
in the best sense a public spirit. But he held 
just as firmly the position that, as the head of a 
college or university, he must come into direct 
relations with students as a teacher ; that the 
ofHce of president could not be sunk in merely 
executive administration ; that all the dignity 
and sacred responsibility of the official robe 
should invest the higher office and functions of 
the teacher; that so only could the academic 
spirit be fully developed and maintained. In 
these views, and as an illustrious example of 
them, he was in close accord with President 
Woolsey. ^ He might possibly have conceded 

^ Article on President Woolsey by Professor George P. 
Fisher, in the Century Magazine, vol. ii., New Series, p. 217. 
2 Vide Professor Fisher's article in Century Magazine, pas- 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN EDUCATOR. 195 

that there were exigencies in the history of col- 
legiate institutions, when the president could 
best serve their interests by exalting the mere 
executive and becoming less the intellectual head. 
But he would certainly have maintained that, if 
the office of president were, from any undue re- 
liance on mere executive ability, permanently 
divorced from the office of teacher, the result 
in the long run and on the broad scale would be 
not only decline in the high position of dignity 
and influence which seem essential to the office, 
but there would be decline also in the academic 
spirit of the institution. 



CHAPTER VII. 

DK. WATLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 

The authorship of Dr. Wayland, in any ex- 
tended sense, began with the publication of his 
" Moral Science," in 1835. It was constructed 
designedly as a text-book. Ordinarily text-books, 
as fruits of authorship, would demand slight no- 
tice. They are made, serve a period of useful- 
ness longer or shorter, and are superseded by 
other and later studies of the subject. Two, how- 
ever, of Dr. Wayland's text-books cannot be so 
summarily dismissed. His " Moral Science " 
has had a history, unique in that of text-books, 
not only nor mainly in its wide and prolonged 
use, but in the educational work it accomplished, 
a work, as we shall see, affecting most deeply 
opinion on a great national question. 

The book itself, like all books of worth, was a 
growth of years. In the Preface of the first edi- 
tion its history is thus given : " When it became 
my duty to instruct in Moral Philosophy, in 
Brown University, the text-book in use was the 
work of Dr. Paley. From many of his princi- 



DR. WAY LAND AS AN AUTHOR. 197 

pies I found myself compelled to dissent, and at 
first I contented myself with stating to my 
classes my objections to the author, and offering 
my views in the form of familiar conversations 
upon several of the topics which he discusses. 

" These views, for my own convenience, I soon 
committed to paper and delivered in the form of 
lectures. In a few years these lectures had be- 
come so far extended that to my surprise, they 
contained by themselves the elements of a differ- 
ent system from that of the text-book which I 
was teaching. To avoid the inconvenience of 
teaching two different systems, I undertook to 
reduce them to order, and to make such addi- 
tions as would render the work in some measure 
complete within itself. I thus relinquished the 
work of Dr. Paley, and for some time have been 
in the habit of instructing by lectures. The suc- 
cess of the attempt exceeded my expectations, 
and encouraged me to hope that the publication 
of what I had delivered to my classes might in 
some small degree facilitate the study of Moral 
Science." He expressly acknowledged his obli- 
gation to Bishop Butler, especially on the sub- 
ject of Conscience, the study of whose sermons 
on Human Nature had first turned his attention 
to the subject. How deeply he felt the impor- 
tance of the work he was undertaking is seen 
from the notice of it in his diary, December 22, 
1833. 



198 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

" I have thought of publishing a work on 
moral philosophy. 

" Direct me, O thou all-wise and Pure Spirit. 
Let me not do it unless it be for thy glory and 
the good of men. If I should do it, may it all 
be true so far as human knowledge at present 
extends. Enlighten, guide, and teach me so that 
I may write something which shall show thy jus- 
tice now more clearly than heretofore, and the 
necessity and excellency of the plan of salvation 
by Christ Jesus, the blessed Redeemer. All 
which I ask through his merits alone. Amen." 
' And on June 6, 1835, after the publication of 
his " Moral Science," the diary records another 
prayer, consecrating it to the " cause of truth, of 
peace, and of righteousness." The work was pub- 
lished in May, 1835. Its success is a matter of 
history. Jurists like Chancellor Kent gave it 
their strongest commendation. It was republished 
in England and Scotland. It was destined to ser- 
vice on missionary fields. Translated into Hawai- 
ian, a missionary wrote him from Honolulu, 
Sandwich Islands, " I am now going through it 
with a class of fifty adults, including the gover- 
nor of the island of Oahu and his principal mag- 
istrates. The subject of Conscience is new to 
them and deeply interesting. They have no word 
for it in their language, but they readily per- 
ceive that there is such a faculty, and they are 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 199 

delighted with the discovery." It was transla- 
ted also into Armenian by Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, 
who wrote the author that " he had thus become 
a co-laborer in the great work of regenerating 
the East." The missionaries o£ the Baptist Mis- 
sionary Union made a similar version in Modern 
Greek, and it appears that a translation in the 
Nestorian language was made by the missiona- 
ries auiong the Nestorians. There was abundant 
reason for such a success. The work supplanttd 
Paley, and deservedly so on more grounds than 
one. The author calls it Moral Science^ and 
whatever may be said now of some of its ethical 
positions, and however it may have been super- 
seded by later teachings, it merits this claim to 
scientific treatment, eminently so as compared 
with Paley 's book. Its division of the subject 
into the two great departments of theoretical 
ethics and practical ethics, its lengthened discus- 
sion of foundation principles in the opening chap- 
ters, the orderly development of the whole, its 
definitions, its concise discussions, all combine to 
make its excellence as a Moral Science. Among 
treatises in this country, it may be justly re- 
garded as the pioneer in scientific treatment of 
ethical principles and applications. 

It was a still greater service rendered by the 
publication of his "Moral Science" that it sup- 
planted Paley's unsound system of ethics by an 



200 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

essentially sound one. Paley's " Moral Philoso- 
phy " was then in general use as a text-book on 
ethics. His well-known definition of virtue ^ and 
its accompanying exposition ; his subsequent 
statements making a utilitarian basis for right,^ 
were repudiated by Dr. Wayland, and the doc- 
trine that " the moral quality of an action resides 
in the intention " was substituted for Paley's 
theory. Dr. Wayland, like Dr. Paley, makes the 
ultimate foundation of virtue to be the will of 
God, a view not held by later wi'iters. In fact, 
it was his discussion of practical ethics which 
was most to be praised. It has been claimed for 
Dr. Paley that his form of the utilitarian theory 
has been misapprehended. Dr. James Martineau 
has endeavored to remove this misapprehension 
in his " Types of Ethical Theory," ^ and a writer 

^ " Virtue is the doing good to mankind in obedience to the 
will of God, and for the sa]ve of everlasting happiness. Ac- 
cording to -which definition, ' the good of mankind ' is the 
subject, the ' will of God ' the rule, and ' everlasting happi- 
ness ' the motive of human virtue." — Paley's iliora^ PAZ/oso- 
■phy, Book I. , Chapter VIII. 

^ "So the actions are to be estimated by their tendency ? 
Whatever is expedient is right. It is the utility of any moral 
rule alone which constitutes the obligation of it ; " and in refer- 
ence to certain bad actions apparently accomplishing useful 
ends, "These actions after all are not useful, and for that rea- 
son, and that alone, are not right." — Moral Philosophy, Book 
II., Chapter VI. 

s "By Paley, for example, this feature {i. e. the conduciveness 
of virtue to the happiness of men) is taken not as in itself con- 



DR. WAY LAND AS AN AUTHOR. 201 

in the " Quarterly Review " ^ has exphiinecl away 
Paley's statements that " it is the utility of any 
moral rule alone which constitues the obligation 
of it," as " the inadvertent expressions of a man 
enamored of his system." However this may be, 
it is plain that Dr. Wayland's " Moral Science," 
as a system of Christian Ethics, rested on a 
sounder and more logical basis, and supplanting 
Paley's, as it seems to have done in many of our 
educational institutions, it rendered an inesti- 
mable service to the cause of public and private 
morality. 

The " Moral Science " rendered another, and 
in its possible results an equally great, service 
to public morals. When the author came to 
treat the topic of " personal liberty " ^ he faced 
squarely the subject of American slavery. After 
having discussed the general question, and hav- 
ing reached the conclusion that " the precepts of 
the gosi)el in no manner countenance, but are 
directly opposed to, the institution of domestic 
slavery,"^ he asks the question, "What is the 
duty of masters and slaves under a condition of 
society in which slavery now exists? " and gives 

stituting right, but as the mark, when Revelation is silent, the 
external index of the Will of God." — Types of Ethical Theory, 
vol. ii. p. 218. 

* Quar. Bev., vol. xxxviii. p. 320. 

2 Moral Science, p. 200. 

8 Ibid. p. 214. 



202 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

the following answer : " If the system be wrong, 
as we have endeavored to show, if it be at vari- 
ance with our duty both to God and to men, it 
must be abandoned. If it be asked, When ? I 
ask again, When shall a man begin to cease do- 
ing wrong ? Is not the answer always, Immedi- 
ately ? " -^ He then considers the objection that 
" immediate abolition " would be the greatest 
possible injury to the slaves themselves, and 
meets it by assuming for the sake of the argu- 
ment that this is the case : — 

1. " The situation of the slaves, in which this 
obstacle to their emancipation exists, is not by 
their oion act, but by the act of their masters ; 
and, therefore, the masters are hound to remove 
it." 

2. Assuming that the slaves must be held in 
bondage until the object be accomplished, then 
" it may be the duty of the master to hold the 
slave ; not, however, on the ground of right over 
him, but of ohligatlon to him, and of obligation 
to him for the purpose of accomplishing a par- 
ticular and specifiedj good.''^ ^ And the whole dis- 
cussion ends with the following impressive and, 
in one sentence, prophetic words : " Hence, if 
any one will reflect on these facts, and remember 
the moral law of the Creator, and the terrible 
sanctions by which his laws are sustained, and 

1 Moral Science, p. 214. 2 jjj^/. p. 215. 



DR. WAY LAND AS AN AUTHOR. 203 

also the provision which, in the gospel of recon- 
ciliation, He lias made for removing this evil af- 
ter it has been once established, he must, I think, 
be convinced of the imperative obligation which 
rests upon him to remove it without the delay of 
a moment. The Judge of the whole earth will 
do justice. He hears the cr}^ of the oppressed, 
and He will in the end terribly vindicate 
right." 1 

These views were, it must be remembered, 
put forth in 1835. They were in a text-book, 
which went at once into very wide circulation. 
The Northern pulpit, with few exceptions, was 
then silent on the subject of slavery. The press 
was not discussing the question in its political 
relations to any great extent. Dr. Wayland's 
" Moral Science " educated the generation which 
came to its manhood in the beginning of the 
great anti-slavery struggle. It was a prime 
agent in the formation of that Northern anti- 
slavery sentiment which, twenty-five years later, 
was driven to its final and triumphant appeal to 
the arbitrament of bloody war. What could 
have been more potent in forming a right public 
sentiment, than a text-book teaching such doc- 
trines of personal libert}^, which in both editions, 
abridged and unabridged, had reached in the 
year 1868 a circulation of one hundred and thir- 

^ Moral Science, p. 216. 



204 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

ty- seven thousand copies? The experience of 
the nation in the necessary appeal to arms for 
the preservation of the national life caused Dr. 
Waylaiid to modify some of his opinions as to 
the lawfulness of war. He was at the outset as 
pronounced in his condemnation of war as of 
slavery. Hon. E. L. Pierce has called attention 
to this in his " Life of Charles Sumner." ^ 

Of all the subjects which Dr. Wayland taught 
during his presidency, Ethics, Political Econ- 
omy, Intellectual Philosophy, and the Evidences 
of Christianity, the first was that with which he 
was best fitted to deal. It was thoroughly con- 
genial to him. The structure of his mind was 
shown in his ready grasp of moral distinctions 
and his skillful application of them to the 
affairs of life. Not only was he best fitted to 

^ " The change of opinion among divines and moralists is 
well shown by comparing the editions of Wayland' s Moral 
Science. In all but the last there is a chapter earnestly set- 
ting forth the moral and religious argument against war, and 
coming to the conclusion that ' hence it would seem that all 
wars are contrary to the revealed will of God, and that the 
individual has no right to commit to society, nor society to 
commit to government, the power to declare war.' But in the 
last edition, published in 1865, just after the suppression of 
the Rebellion, and completed one month preceding his death, 
the author substituted a much briefer discussion of the ques- 
tion, and maintained, contrary to the view his treatise had 
taught for thirty years, the duty, in extreme cases, of national 
aggression to repel force by force." — Pierce's Ziife of Sumner, 
vol. ii. p. 380, note. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 205 

expound practical ethics, but, as a consequence, 
it was in this field that he secured so wonderful 
a hold on his pupils. Those hours in the Moral 
Science class-room were never and could be 
never forgotten. His students felt the imperial 
power of his sturdy moral nature reenforcing 
the solid, clear conclusions of his reasoning, and 
by common consent regarded " Moral Science," 
as taught by him, the crowning and distinguish- 
ing feature of the college course. Explanation 
of this might be readily found in the text-book 
itself. As one turns its pages and reads its 
chapters even now, there is a distinct if unde- 
finable impression of deep sincerity and massive 
strength in all its sentences. Superseded doubt- 
less it may and will be. As a text-book, it is 
open to criticism. But it is living yet, and doing 
still its work of educating the moral sense of 
many an American youth. 

There is evidence too that it was read by a 
public outside college or academy walls. It 
touched on and handled questions which were in 
the air of the time. It was singularly free 
fi'om scholastic subtleties. It was the " com- 
mon-sense " philosophy applied to ethics, on 
that account unsatisfactory to some, but on 
that very account liked by the common under- 
standing. An instance illustrating this is given 
in the following letter from Dr. A. A. Liver- 
more : — 



206 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

"Wilton, N. H., August 12, 1890. 

Dear Sie, — Yours received. In reply I 
would say that the incident to which you refer 
is a fact, which I have heard related by the per- 
son hiuiself. 

It was Rev. Mordecai De Lange, a Jew, who 
was converted to Christianity by the perusal of 
Dr. Wayland's " Moral Science." He was a 
young man, resident in St. Louis, Mo., engaged 
in business. One day at his boarding-house, 
while waiting dinner, he casually took up this 
book, and read a chapter on Conscience, and it 
awakened a train of thought which led him to 
renounce Judaism, and to accept the gospel of 
Christ. I forget the precise mental process 
through which his mind passed in arriving at 
this conclusion, suffice it to say, Wayland's 
" Moral Science " furnished the seed germ. 

Subsequently, Mr. De Lange became a Uni- 
tarian under the preaching of Rev. Dr. William 
G. Eliot of St. Louis, and he became also a 
minister. He was first settled as a minister at 
large in Dr. Eliot's church, was then chaplain of 
the Missouri State Prison, afterwards the pastor 
of the Unitarian church in Pittsburgh, Pa., and 
when he died, some years ago, he was custodian 
of the Meadville, Pa., Theological School. 
Yours truly, 

A. A. LiVERMORE. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 207 

In 1837, two years after the publication of 
his " Moral Science," his " Elements of Politi- 
cal Economy" was issued. Say's "Political 
Economy " had been published in this country 
with notes by C. C. Biddle in 1824. The 
manuals of Cooper and Phillips had appeared 
in 1826 or 1828 ; Say's " New Principles of 
Political Economy " in 1834. Besides these 
there were the well-known and standard treatises 
of Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, Mill, and 
Whately. It was the aim of Dr. Wayland to sim- 
plify the science. He said in the preface that " the 
works on this subject in general use, while they 
presented its doctrines trul}'-, did not present 
them in such order as would be most likely to 
render them serviceable either to the general 
reader or to the practical merchant." Struck 
by the simplicity of the principles of this sci- 
ence, the extent of its generalizations, and the 
readiness with which its facts seemed capable of 
being brought into natural and methodical ar- 
rangement, he constructed his work so as to pre- 
sent the subject in the plainest manner possible. 
It is thus divested of all show of learning and 
all pretense to profoundly philosophical treat- 
ment. In a word, it is a book for laymen and 
for beginners. This is all it aimed to be. How 
well it met this want is seen from the fact that 
after fifty years have passed it is still in use. 



208 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Twenty years ago it had reached a circulation 
of fifty thousand copies for the larger treatise, 
and for the abiidgment, twelve thousand. Dr. 
Wayland's interest in this study was far deeper 
than a merely professional one. In his view it 
affected the higher interests of the peoj)le. It 
crossed the boundary which separates the ma- 
terial from the moral welfare of society. In a 
letter to the Rev. Dr. Anderson, Secretary of 
the American Board of Foreign Missions, he 
expressed the opinion that " scarcely anything 
would be more calculated to arouse and stimu- 
late the minds of persons emerging from barba- 
rism than the study of the elements of this sci- 
ence." A passion for human welfare was a lead- 
ing characteristic in his moral nature, and hence 
he wrote with the conviction that the two sub- 
jects of Moral Science and Political Economy 
were cognate, capable of clear division each from 
the other, but that the fundamental principles 
of the one were involved in the principles of the 
other. In the publication of his " Political Econ- 
omy " we have also an illustration of a marked 
trait in the man. He had the courage of his 
opinions. In a community, the interests of which 
were bound up in manufactures, he was the out- 
spoken advocate of Free Trade. And in the 
opinion of not a few, had Dr. Wayland given 
time to full research on the subject instead of 



DR. WAY LAND AS AN AUTHOR. 209 

contenting himself with a rudimental treatise, 
he would have proved himself a leading author- 
ity on questions of Political Economy. 

In the spring of 1838, he published his 
" Limitations of Human Responsibility," a small 
volume of two hundred pages, described in his 
dedication to Dr. Daniel Sharp as a " little 
essay." Nothing that he ever wrote was the 
subject of more animadversion at home and 
abroad. From some of its positions he himself 
at a later date receded. It was called forth by 
what he considered were wrong methods of con- 
ducting reforms desii-able in themselves. The 
two reforms then rising into prominence and rap- 
idly becoming " burning questions " were Tem- 
perance and Antislavery. No man held more 
stoutly, or pushed to closer application, the doc- 
ti-ine of individual responsibility than did he. 
To this position he arrived in great part by his 
Baptist training, but in great part also by his 
own thinking. It seemed to him that a just 
view of individual responsibility was endangered 
on the one hand by merging the moral individu- 
alism in voluntary association, and on the other 
by pressing individual responsibility beyond its 
proper ethical limits. Hence the title of the 
little treatise, " Limitations of Human Respon- 
sibility." He was well aware that no subject 
in the wide field of casuistry offered more dif- 



210 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Acuities in the way of clear exposition, and he 
began his discussion by considering in the open- 
ing chapters the nature of the subject, and by 
defining the limits of individual responsibility. 
He held in general that men are not responsi- 
ble for the accomplishment of any good if it be 
out of their power, whether it be beyond the 
limit of ability they possess, or whether it re- 
quires a kind of ability not at their command. 
He maintained also that, supposing the accom- 
plishment of any good be within the power, it 
does not follow by necessity that this simple fact 
carries with it a responsibility for its perform- 
ance. He then enumerates and discusses five 
different limitations of individual responsibility. 
He expressly disclaims having enumerated all 
the cases in which our responsibility for the per- 
formance of general duties is limited, and theti 
proceeds to apply the principles laid down, to 
such cases as persecution for religious opinions, 
the j)rop)agation of truths voluntary associations, 
ecclesiastical associations, official resj)onsihility, 
and finally the slavery question. His discus- 
sion of the subject of Voluntary Associations 
brought out his views of temperance pledges. 
He questioned their general utility as then urged 
by temperance reformers, not only on the most 
stringent grounds of moral obligations, but of- 
ten in a spirit of intolerance and uncharitable- 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 211 

uess.^ He combated the right o£ churches to 
lay down tests for church membership not pre- 
scribed in the New Testament. In a word, he 
deprecated the tendency to sink the individual 
in a corporate conscience of any sort. 

In his discussion of " Official Responsibility " 
he announced with clearness and emphasis all 
the underlying principles of modern civil ser- 
vice reform. He lifted a solemn and pregnant 
warnino' against the demoi'alizing effect which 
must be produced in any community where 
elections are so frequent, by holding up before 
voters the motives of sordid self-interest in the 
place of the proper motives which should influ- 
ence every citizen. The standard of public vir- 
tue is thus depressed, and a base subserviency 
to popular clamor is engendered, of which a free 
people would do well to be deeply ashamed. 

His treatment of the slavery question, in the 
closing section of the book, was a surprise and a 
disappointment to the best antislavery sentiment 
of the North. He took the ground that Con- 
gress had the right to abolish slavery in the 
District of Columbia only when, first, the South- 
ern States agree to its abolition, or, secondly, 
whenever Marjdand and Virginia, or either of 
them, shall abolish it in their own domain. 

This would give the Southern States the con- 

1 Section "VI. pp. 104-107 



212 FEANCIS WAYLAND. 

trolling power in the decision of the question. 
Pie argued for this view from the constitutional 
rights of the Southern States. Thus quoting 
the Constitution, he said : " This instrument has 
not merely a positive, it has also a negative 
power. It not only grants certain powers, but 
it expressly declares that those not enumerated 
are not granted. Thus, it enacts that all ' The 
powers not delegated to the United States by the 
Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 
are reserved to the States, respectively, or to the 
people.' Now, the abolition of slavery being a 
power not conferred, it is, by this article, ex- 
pressly withheld. Whatever power we may 
therefore have over slavery, as citizens of the 
several States, within our own limits, respect- 
ively, we have none, as citizens of the United 
States. The majority of the people in the 
United States have, in this respect, no power 
over the minority ; for the minority has never 
conceded to them this power. Should all the 
States in the Union but one, and that one the 
very smallest, abolish slavery, should the major- 
ity of one hundred to one of the people of the 
United States be in favor of its abolition, still it 
would not alter the case. That one State would 
be as free to abolish it or not to abolish it, as it 
is now. This is a question which has never been 
submitted to the majority of the citizens of these 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 213 

United States, and therefore the citizens of the 
United States, as citizens, have nothing to do 
with it." 

His position on the question of abolishing 
slavery in the District of Columbia was not long 
held by him. He had mistaken the temper of 
the South. The tone was rapidly changing from 
that of a23ology to that of aggression. He came 
in a few years to see that the propagandists of 
slavery as an institution, who subsequently ma- 
terialized their plans in the annexation of Texas, 
far outnumbered a small body of excellent 
Southern people who pleaded for its toleration 
and talked of gradual emancipation.^ This 
change of view is alluded to in a letter from 
Charles Sumner to Dr. Channing,^ dated June 
23, 1842. 

" I was in Providence yesterday, where I saw 
President Way land. He wished me to say to 
you that he had read both pai*ts ^ with great 
pleasure, and that he agreed with you entirely. 
His views on slavery, and with regard to the 
South, have materially changed lately." 

In the autumn of 1852, at the request of the 

1 Wilson's Rise and Fall of the Slave Power, vol. i. pp, 
189-207. 

2 Pierce's Life of Sumner, vol. ii. p. 211. 

* Alluding to Dr. Chamiing's pamphlet on ih& Duty of the 
Free States. 



214 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Executive Committee of the Baptist Missionary 
Union, and in accordance witli the wishes of 
Mrs. Emily C. Judson, Dr. Wayland undertook 
the biography of Dr. Adoniram Judson. It was 
altogether fitting that he, the foremost of Bap- 
tist scholars and divines in America, should 
write the life of the foi-emost American Baptist 
missionary. From the date of his sermon on 
the " Moral Dignity of the Missionary Enter- 
prise," the subject of foreign missions had occu- 
pied his mind. He was well versed in their 
progress, had thought long and deeply on their 
true method. In the career of Dr. Judson he 
bad cherished a special interest. The celebrated 
missionary on the visit to America in 1845 had 
been his guest, and they had communed freely 
concerning the great subject of missions. 

He undertook the work from the highest mo- 
tive, that of service to the common Master, but 
with a motive of generosity also, for he presented 
the copyright to Dr. Judson's family, after pay- 
ing all the incidental expenses of preparing the 
book. Grave difficulties beset him at the outset, 
thus stated in the Preface : " From peculiar 
views of duty. Dr. Judson had caused to be 
destroyed all his early letters written to his fam- 
ily, together with all his papers of a personal 
character. Mrs. Ann H. Judson, from pruden- 
tial reasons, during their captivity in Ava, de- 



DR. WAY LAND AS AN AUTHOR. 215 

stroyed all his letters in her possession. Manu- 
scripts were also consumed by the burning of 
Mr. Stevens's house in Maulraain. Dr. Jud- 
son's correspondence with Dr. Stoughton per- 
ished by the shijiwreck of a vessel. . . . Last 
of all, his letters to his missionary brethren in 
Burmah were lost by the foundering of the ship 
which was conveying them to this country." 
The woi-k had therefore to be constructed mainly 
from Dr. Judson's official correspondence and 
from the reminiscences of Mrs. Judson. Its 
preparation occupied all his spare time for most 
of the year 1852-3. When it was finished he 
said of it, " I feel relieved of a pressure that has 
not left me since I commenced it. I think it 
will be useful and interesting. Indeed I feel a 
more than usual confidence in it. Mrs. Judson 
thinks it truthful. If it should prove otherwise 
than useful I shall regret it, for it has taken a 
year of my time when years begin to grow few. 
... I presume it will be liked and disliked, as 
is the fate of most that I have written. ... The 
fact has been, that when I got hold of this work, 
and the work got hold of me, I could not leave 
it without feeling that I was wasting time." 

Its plan of construction was simple, if not 
by choice, from the necessity of the case in the 
loss of materials. The life is unfolded through 
letters, through the journals of Dr. Judson and 



216 FEANCIS WAY LAND. 

others, the links of connection being supplied by 
the biographer, and such commentary also as is 
needed to make the whole clear. The merit of 
the work consists therefore largely in the selec- 
tion, digestion, and arrangement of the various 
sources of information. 

In consequence of this, the part contributed 
by Dr. Wayland's own pen bears a comparatively 
small proportion to the whole. It could hardly 
be claimed for Dr. Wayland that he had special 
qualifications for such writing. His style was 
lacking in the lighter and i^d vivacious qual- 
ities which such biographies of pire. He had 
never cultivated this vein. B^t. ^ould be graphic, 
as passages in his sermons show. But his pen 
had been almost wholly exercised in a grave, 
sententious, and weighty expression of thought. 
The biography has, however, the cardinal merit 
of candor and impartiality throughout. On all 
points where Dr. Judson's course had been 
called in question,^ the author meets the issue 
fairly, and his conclusions are judicial in their 
tone. He had the deepest veneration for Dr. 
Judson's character, and also sympathy with his 
methods. The two men were remarkably alike 
in their mental and moral build. But it is evi- 

■^ His relations with the American Board, Memoir of Dr. 
Judson, vol. i. p. 81 ; his alleged austerities of Christian life, 
Ihid. vol. i. p. 538, 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 217 

dent that, as a biographer, the author meant to 
make judicial fairness the dominant element in 
his estimate. In the sketch he gives of Bud- 
dhism ^ these qualities are very distinctly trace- 
able. When the biography appeared, the criti- 
cism was made ^ that he had colored the views 
of Dr. Judson with his own, regarding the true 
method of conducting missions. Such opinions 
as, opposition to any secular education as a form 
of missionary effort,^ and, opposition to large 
missionary stations,^ may be instanced. An 
examination of all the passages in the biogra- 
phy which bear on the question will show that 
their statements are confirmed, either by direct 
quotation from Dr. Judson's writings, or by the 
citation of well-known facts. That the two men 
agreed perfectly in their views is clear ; that the 
biographer was glad to confirm his own views by 
the authority of so distinguished a missionary is 
true. As to the opinions themselves, they are 
certainly open to question. But such a ciiticism 
on the biographer is not warranted. The merits 
of the memoir lie largely in the great simpli- 
city of its structure. Any one familiar with the 
facts of Dr. Judson's career is aware that in 
parts it is susceptible of the highest rhetorical 

^ Memoir of Dr. Judson, vol. i. pp. 138-153. 
^ Memoir of Wayland, vol. ii. p. 120. 
^ Memoir of Dr. Judson, vol. i. p. 209. 
* Ibid. vol. ii. p. 961. 



218 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

presentation. In all the prison literature of tlie 
world, nothing exceeds in tragic interest the 
story of that imprisonment at Ava and Oung- 
Pen-La. Possibly the simplicity of its narra- 
tive as told by Dr. Wayland may be justifie&l on 
the highest grounds of literary art. The more 
rhetorical treatment may be left for lives in 
which the element of moral grandeur is not so 
predominating. 

For a considerable time Dr. Wayland did not 
again enter into the field of authorship. His 
colleoe duties and numerous calls for addresses 
on public occasions absorbed his time. In 1854 
he published his text-book on " Intellectual Phi- 
losophy." It was constructed on the same plan 
with his earlier efforts in the department of 
moral science and political economy. " I have 
not entered," he says in his Preface, " upon the 
discussion of many of the topics which have 
called into exercise the acumen of the ablest 
metaphysicians. Intended to serve the purposes 
of a text-book, it was necessary that the volume 
should be compressed within a compass adapted 
to the time usually allotted to the study of this 
science in the colleges of our country, I have 
therefore attempted to present and illustrate the 
important truths in intellectual philosophy, ra- 
ther than the inferences which may be drawn 
from them, or the doctrines which they may 



DR. WAY LAND AS AN AUTHOR. 219 

presuppose." He follows in the main the older 
Scotch school of mental philosophy as repre- 
sented in Reid and Stewart. The book did not, 
however, gain the position readily accorded his 
earlier works. For this, various reasons may be 
assigned. It seemed at first view to have the 
advantage over these, of longer preparation, and 
familiarity with more recent discussions. But it 
can hardly be claimed for Dr. Way land that he 
had a metaphysical mind. He was far more ca- 
pable of broad generalizations than of the subtle 
distinctions which are essential to the pursuit of 
mental science. His bent was stronger toward 
a sound and discriminating study of practical 
ethics than toward the involved problems of 
metaphysics or psychology. In a letter to Hon. 
Ellis Lewis, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court 
of Pennsylvania, he once said : " The only posi- 
tion the world could offer me which I have 
thought I should like is that of a judge of a 
court whose decisions involved grave questions 
of right." 

Nor had he made himself acquainted with the 
results of German studies on this subject. It 
could hardly be, also, that any entirely adequate 
text-book could be written on mental philosophy 
which did not presuppose an acquaintance, more 
or less exact, with the history of philosophy. 
While he entirely disclaims all attempt to cover 



220 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

these fields, and restricts himself to the " impor- 
tant truths in intellectual philosophy," the inter- 
est for teachers, and for students also, lies to a 
great extent in this debatable territory. Ad- 
mitting all the claims of his " Intellectual Phi- 
losophy " to excellence in lucid statements and 
clear discussions, it certainly did not equal as 
a text-book either the " Moral Science " or the 
" Political Economy." ^ 

It is worthy of note that in his " Intellectual 
Philosophy " he raised the question as to whether 
mathematics did not hold too great prominence 
in the ordinary college curriculum. He seems 
in this to have shared to a degree the opinions 
of Sir William Hamilton as to its disciplinary 
value. His position is much more carefully 
guarded, is indeed far less sweeping.^ His ob- 
jections to the study are rather to its extent and 
method, than of an intrinsic nature. The posi- 
tion he had taken as to elective studies really in- 
volved this view of mathematics. If the classics 

1 The phenomenal success of Dr. Wayland's text-hooks is 
seen in the statement of the publishers that up to 1890 '' prob- 
ably not less than two hundred thousand copies have been put 
forth." 

^ " If we consult reason, experience, and the common testi- 
mony of ancient and modern times, none of our intellectual 
studies tend to cultivate a small ernumber of the faculties, in 
a more partial or feeble manner, than mathematics." See Sir 
William Hamilton's Discussions on Philosophy and Literature, 
p. 268. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 221 

are to be dropped by those who have no taste 
for them, why not mathematics on the same 
grounds? In support of his view he certainly 
could appeal to the fact that the proportion of 
minds who have no special aptitude for mathe- 
matical study is assuredly as large as that of 
minds without aj)titude for the study of the 
classics. 

The volume entitled " Principles and Practices 
of Baptists," published in 1856, is a collection 
of short papers prepared by Dr. Wayland for 
a religious weekly, the "• Examiner," the oldest 
Baptist weekly in America. As at first pro- 
jected, these papers were to be a series of eight 
or ten. 

The work grew on his hands until the articles 
ran through a year. The numbers as they ap- 
peared from week to week elicited growing 
interest. They were short, pithy, able presenta- 
tions of the topics treated. The discussions 
touched on issues so practical, and treated of 
matters so vital to the welfare, not only of the 
denomination of Baptists, but of a wider eccle- 
siastical circle, besides maintaining firmly the 
distinctive Baptist tenets, that he was led to 
collect and issue them in the volume with the 
title named above. " The main object of the 
author," he states in his Preface, " has been to 
present a short popular view of the distinctive 



222 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

belief of the Baptist denomination, and to urge 
upon his brethren a practice in harmony with 
their professions." The cardinal principles of 
Baptists in regard to Confessions of Faith are 
admirably stated in the opening paper. " Our 
rule of faith and practice is the New Testament." 
" We believe in the fullest sense in the inde- 
pendence of every individual church of Christ." 
These are the seminal principles of the denomi- 
nation, and they have undoubtedly led to an ex- 
altation of the Scriptures as well as an exeget- 
ical study of them, which is to the lasting honor 
of the Baptist churches. They were principles 
rooted in the soul of Dr. Wayland, not only by 
heredity and early training, but by long matured 
thinking on the subject. In the two following 
chapters, he unfolds the views of Baptists on the 
distinctive evangelical doctrines of the Trinity, 
Human Depravity, Atonement, and Regenera- 
tion. No other doctrines are discussed. He 
shows, however, that on these points. Baptists 
have always held what are " emphatically the doc- 
trines of the Reformation." His discussion then 
turns to the ministry, and is a strong lucid pres- 
entation of the views of the denomination as to 
its province, its methods, and its qualifications. 
Eleven chapters are occupied in unfolding what he 
deemed the New Testament views on the subject 
of preaching. Then he takes up what are com- 



DR. WAY LAND AS AN AUTHOR. 223 

monly regarded as the more distinctive tenets of 
the Baptist churches, Baptism, Mode of Admis- 
sion to the Ministry by the chni'ch, Hereditary 
Membership at variance with the idea of the 
spirituality of the church, the Right of Private 
Judgment, the Separation of Church from the 
State, Church Architecture, Church Music, 
Worship, Church Discipline, Independence of 
the churches, returning at last to the discussion 
of the ministry and the structure of sermons. 
There are in all fifty-two of these papers, the 
main topics of which are indicated above. Dr. 
Wayland attempted no exhaustive discussion of 
many points. His aim was different. But the ar- 
ticles are, for their purpose, models of clear, suc- 
cinct statements, without a vestige of contro- 
versial character in them. They are of value as 
showing how dear to him were the tenets of his 
church, how vital he deemed them to be to the 
upbuilding of the kingdom of God. He was 
wont to call himself an " old-fashioned Baptist." 
He possibly was regarded by some as too severe 
in his ideas on church music and architecture 
and preaching. His views on these topics were 
called in question as not meeting the demands 
of a growing class of worshipers, who think 
they need more ornate surroundings and greater 
attraction, in the form of quartette choirs. The 
reply was that other denominations provide these, 



224 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

and in harmony with their liturgical methods. 
Baptist principles demand the utmost simplicity. 
Baptist history shows that the denomination has 
grown, not by conforming to the more ornate 
methods, but by strict and strenuous adhesion to 
the oldtime simplicity. He could be " modern " 
and " progressive " in matters where new light 
was needed, as in plans of education. But he 
held to the oldtime pra,etices of the Baptist 
churches, because in his judgment they squared 
with the fixed principles of the New Testament. 
And in his stout and loyal assertion of the New 
Testament as the only rule of faith and practice, 
of the separation of the church from the state, 
of the right of private judgment, the candor and 
earnestness of his statements will command the 
highest respect. In fact, they constitute a noble 
tribute to the Baptist churches, one of the largest 
denominations in our country, and whose work 
in its christianization has been from the begin- 
ning one of depth and power. He dwelt at so 
great length on the subject of the Christian 
Ministry ^ because his thoughts were, in the lat- 
ter part of his life, absorbed largely by this 
question. The future of the church of Christ 
in his view depended on the character of its min- 
istry, and he thought tendencies were apparent 
in all the churches which threatened to destroy 

1 More than half the articles treat of this subject. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 225 

the efficiency of preaching. These tendencies 
were directly opposed to the earlier Baptist 
views, and he brought out this divergence from 
Baptist principles with solemn earnestness. The 
position taken by him was that an " educated 
ministry," meaning by this a ministry trained in 
colleges and theological seminaries, was not of 
necessity the ministry recognized in the New 
Testament nor sanctioned by the practices of the 
Baptist Church. " It would seem," he says, 
" from these passages (1 Tim. iii 2-7 ; Titus 
i. 6-9) that any disciple of Christ of blameless 
manners and pure character, meek, forbearing, 
temperate, sober, just, holy, thoroughly attached 
to the doctrines of the Gospel, having a natural 
gift for teaching, and having had some experi- 
ence in the Christian life, not a novice, has the 
qualifications for the ministry which the New 
Testament requires. These are found to be, pre- 
cisely the qualifications demanded in the mis- 
sionary field, and the men who possess them are 
the men found to be preeminently useful." He 
further argues that by adherence to this rule, 
the ministry would be increased both in numbers 
and efficiency. For ten years at least, the sub- 
ject of the Christian ministry had pressed upon 
his soul. It was the theme of correspondence 
with such divines as Dr. James W. Alexander, 
of New York, and Bishop Mcllvaine, of Ohio. 



226 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

The brief pastoi^ate he held over the First Bap- 
tist Church in 1857-58 only intensified convic- 
tions which had been gathering force for years. 
They had been spoken in part at Kochester, New 
York, in the sermon on the " Apostolic Minis- 
try." They had been more fully uttered in the 
" Notes on the Principles and Practices of 
Baptist Churches." But he felt that the subject 
needed fuller discussion. Hence the little vol- 
ume " Letters on the Ministry of the Gospel," 
published in 1863. It made a stir on its publi- 
cation. Nothing he ever wrote, save the " Limi- 
tations of Human Responsibility," was so sharply 
criticised. In it he compares the ministry of 
the present with that of the past, not always to 
the advantage of the former. He treats of a 
" call " to the ministry, and lays great stress on 
the idea of the Divine call. He devotes a chap- 
ter to the question, " Is the ministry a profes- 
sion ? " and finds lurking in the phraseology 
" profession of the ministry " a dangerous ten- 
dency. The remainder of the volume unfolds 
the true marks and aims of a Christian ministry. 
It was thought and charged that he was unduly 
severe in his criticisms ; that he did not do jus- 
tice to the ministiy as it really was ; that a 
morbid tone characterized the book. Some of 
its views are undoubtedly extreme, for example 
his objections to the use of written sermons. 



DR. WAYLAND AS AN AUTHOR. 227 

Sometimes he reasons as if manifest exceptions 
were the rule, as when he says " the same paper 
has not very unfrequently been put to triple 
duty. It first appears as a sermon, then as a 
platform address, or as a lecture before some 
literary society, then as an article for a popu- 
lar magazine." It is difficult to account for 
the severity of criticism which the book called 
forth. If the utterances of the author were 
wounds, they were the faithful wounds of a 
friend. The ideal he presents is doubtless a 
very high one. It is exacting in many respects 
on the side of ministerial work and ministerial 
example. The motive which prompted the vol- 
ume and which shaped it as a whole, was no un- 
kind criticism, but rather a desire to help toward 
higher efficiency in the sacred calling. That it 
met a cordial response from eminent laymen and 
many clergymen is well known. 

In general it may be said of Dr. Wayland's 
authorship that it was controlled by a dominant 
aim to secure practical results. Toward the 
end of his " Political Economy," he has a short 
section " On consumption for the gratification 
of desire," which seems to be almost purely an 
ethical discussion. Indeed, one charm which the 
study of Political Economy had for him was his 
view that in some of its bearings it was closely 
related to Moral Science. His books never 



228 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

wandered into any region of speculation. They 
show no wide reading, never suggest learned 
authorship. In fact, he had read more widely 
than his works would show. But they one and 
all move with practical purpose to a practical 
end. Their direct, lucid, serious style is fitted 
to this end, and to reach it seems to have been 
his only ambition in the field of authorship. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

DR. WAYLAND AS A PREACHER. 

The career of Dr. Waylaiul as a preacher 
naturally divides into three periods. The first 
of these is that of the Boston pastorate, in which 
he published a volume entitled " Occasional Dis- 
courses," containing his noted sermons on the 
" Moral Dignity of the Missionary Enterprise " 
and on the " Duties of an American Citizen." 

The second period is that of his presidency, 
when he assumed the office of college preacher, 
and in the course of which appeared the volume 
called " University Sermons," delivered in the 
chapel of Brown University, afterwards repub- 
lished under the title " Salvation by Christ." 
The third period is that subsequent to his resig- 
nation of the presidency, his temporary pas- 
torate of the First Baptist Church, Providence. 
The sermons which represent it were published 
in 1858, under the title " Sermons to the 
Churches." Each of these volumes embodied 
important and differing characteristics of his 
preaching. Certain features are common to all. 



230 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

Together they form a striking series, and a com- 
plete view of Dr. Wayland's pulpit power is 
only gained as all are studied in the order of 
their production. 

What Dr. Wayland was in the ordinary par- 
ish sermons of the first pastorate in Boston, we 
have now little means of knowing. He in later 
years was a severe ci'itic upon his earlier preach- 
ing. He condemned it as more an intellectual 
than a moral exercise. He bewailed his mis- 
take of having used written sermons rather than 
extempore discourse. His people, however, and 
he had hearers who would have been keenly sen- 
sitive to ambitious display in the pulpit, never 
expressed any opinions adverse to the spiritual 
toue of his preaching. And most persons who 
heard him would have greatly preferred see- 
ing the preacher with manuscript before him. 
In his first sermon to the people, he laid down 
the principles which were to guide him in his 
preaching. 

1. He must deliver to his people, without ad- 
dition or retrenchment, the truths contained in 
the Holy Word, 

2. He must deliver each distinct truth to 
those for whom his Master has designed it. 

3. He must deliver the truth in such manner 
as his Master has directed. 

The only noteworthy thing here is, that this 



DR. WAYLAiVD AS A PREACHER. 231 

strictly Biblical idea of preaching was never 
forgotten nor forsaken by liim. There is little 
or no trace of formal structure or horniletical 
rules in his sermons. They are all shaped by 
the Scriptural idea. If he found truths in the 
Bible which were in apparent conflict, he never 
attempted anything like a reconciliation of them. 
Thus in the first sermon to his Boston people, 
after speaking of some " obscurities connected 
with the truths of God's Word," he adds : — 

" Here it may be asked. Is not God consis- 
tent with Himself ? and if we find one doctrine 
clearly revealed and another which we cannot 
reconcile with it, is it not evident that the one 
or the other must be taken with some limita- 
tions, and in our preaching are we not bound 
to limit it ? We answer, God is doubtless con- 
sistent with Himself, but He has never appointed 
us judges of his consistency ; and until He shall 
thus appoint us, it were certainly modest in us 
to decline the office. We answer again. If two 
such doctrines occur — and they may doubtless 
occur — the duty of the minister is to preach 
them both, fully and clearly, as they are re- 
vealed in the Scriptures. He has nothing to do 
with their consistency. If his hearers object on 
this account, the controversy is between God 
and their own souls, and there must the minis- 
ter of Christ leave it." 



232 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

This is common sense, but it lias been too un- 
common in the pulpit. The day has not yet 
passed when preachers think they must " recon- 
cile" St. Paul and St. James, or science with 
religion. This however is not the " ministry of 
reconciliation" in the Pauline sense. Dr. Way- 
land never attempted it. He has no theory of 
the atonement. Nothing like a theological sys- 
tem is discernible in his sermons. W hat he found 
in the Bible that he preached, and let the hearer 
reconcile the truth of free agency with that of 
Divine control by his own common sense. It 
was his " occasional " sermons — such as the Mis- 
sionary Discourse, the two sermons on the 
" Duties of an American Citizen " with that on 
the " Death of the Ex-President " — which at- 
tracted notice to him as a preacher. Dr. Way- 
land says that in consequence of the reputation 
these discourses gave him he " was led to think 
that plain, simple, unadorned address, though 
suitable to other occasions, would not be suita- 
ble for the pulpit." His criticism on himself is 
hardly borne out by the specimens of his preach- 
ing given in his later volume of University Ser- 
mons, They are remarkable and commendable 
for their simplicity of structure and style. His 
first volume, " Occasional Discourses," brings 
out his power as a preacher on such themes. 
These must of necessity be more elaborate, more 



DR. WAY LAND AS A PREACHER. 233 

finished, than the ordinary ministrations of the 
pulpit. He always broug4it to their composition 
his fullest powers, and rose easily to the de- 
mands of the occasion. In his own community, 
if the death of an eminent citizen and public 
benefactor ^ were to be commemorated, if a 
great public crisis needed notice,^ if any benev- 
olent movement required public support,^ the 
instinct was to turn to him for the needed utter- 
ances. Plis services were sought in a far wider 
field, and his " occasional " sermons were always 
on a high level. His power was unabated by 
years. The sermon on the " Apostolic Minis- 
try " at Rochester in 1853, while it is different 
in style from the celebrated Missionary Discourse 
of 1823, produced almost as much impression, 
and has in it quite as much of enduring power. 
His two discourses, " Thoughts on the Present 
Distress," i. e. the financial panic of 1857, are 
noteworthy for the practical wisdom of his 
points, for the way in which he brought his stud- 
ies in political economy to bear on the subject, 

^ Discourses on the deaths of Nicholas Brown ; Professor 
William E. Goddard ; Rev. James N. Granger, D. D. ; Moses 
B. Ives. 

2 Discourse on the Affairs of JRhode Island, 1842 ; Discourse 
on the Present (Financial) Crisis, 1857. 

^ Sermon before the Howard Benevolent Society ; Discourse 
on Claims of Whalemen ; Sermon on the Fast-Day for the Vis- 
itation of Cholera, 18-49. 



234 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

for tlie insight with which he traced the origin 
of the calamity to moral conditions, and for the 
breadth of didactic treatment displayed.. The 
"vice" of such discourses is overdoing; is un- 
wise, extreme talk, easily dismissed as "pulpit" 
morals. With this vice, his discourses are never 
tainted. The very calmness and moderation of 
his tone gave it immense power. 

It must not be forgotten that in the sphere of 
the preacher, " occasional discourses," as they 
are called, must hold a very high place. They 
subserve the highest religious and moral uses. 
The power of the pulpit can be maintained over 
the public mind only as the grave crises in pub- 
lic affairs are met worthily by timely utterances. 
From the days of Chrysostom to the present, the 
preacher has gained some of his most enduring 
triumphs in such emergencies. The press can- 
not usurp this function. It may be or maj' be- 
come a most powerful ally in rebuking public 
corruption, or advocating high reform, or incit- 
ing noble benevolence. The preachers who real- 
ize this great attribute of the Christian ministry 
and use it, alone fill out the measure of their re- 
sponsibility. It is certainly one of Dr. Way- 
land's great services to his day and generation 
that, as the preacher of " occasional discourses," 
he has given dignity to the American pulpit, 
and earned for himself a just fame as one of the 
wisest and noblest of religious teachers. 



DR. WAY LAND AS A PREACHER 235 

Dr. Wayland's "University Sermons," pub- 
lished in 1849, were a selection from the dis- 
courses preached in the college on Sunday af- 
ternoons. At what time after assuming^ the 
presidency he began this practice, it is impossi- 
ble to state with exactness. ^ It was intermitted 
for a few years, but resumed in 1845, and con- 
tinued thenceforward to the close of his presi- 
dential career. The attendance on these ser- 
vices was voluntary on the part of the students, 
and they came to them almost in a body. 
About the same time, it would seem, that Dr. 
Arnold was beginning that course of Rugby 
Sermons, which in England set on foot the 
practice in the other great public schools, and 
on which so much of Dr. Arnold's fame rests, 
Dr. Wayland was instituting the same method 
of moral and religious teaching in Brown Uni- 
versity. There was no college church organiza- 
tion of which he was pastor in name or in fact, 
such as had long existed in Yale College. From 

1 From a letter written to his mother in 1832 by Mrs. Way- 
land, we learn that "for three Sabbaths past he has preached 
to the students and to the officers and their families in the 
college chapel." This would make the date of the chapel 
preaching about six years after assuming the office of presi- 
dent. It was no part of his official duty as prescribed by the 
Corporation, but purely a voluntary undertaking. In May, 
1834, he was invited by the "Religioiis Society" of the col- 
lege, by a formal vote, to preach regularly before the society 
on Sunday afternoons as he had already done occasionally. 



236 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

the beginning, as in the college of New Jersey 
at Princeton, after which it was, as Rhode Island 
College, somewhat modeled, its first president, 
James Manning, having been a graduate of the 
former institution, no connection with any de- 
nomination was made by Brown University. 
Beyond the fact that its president must by 
charter be a Baptist, no denominational color- 
ing was visible. It was on this broad and cath- 
olic basis that Dr. Way land instituted these 
chapel sermons, as it was on a similar basis that 
the Rugby Sermons seem to have been con- 
structed. Like Dr. Arnold,^ he " made a point 
of varying the more directly practical addresses 
with sermons on the interpretation of Scripture 
and Evidences of Christianity, or on the dan- 
gers of [the student's] after life." Dean Stan- 
ley's description of Dr. Arnold's preaching will 
apply almost word for word to Dr. Way land. 

" But more than either matter or manner of 
his preaching, was the impression of himself. 
Even the mere readers of his sermons will de- 
rive from them the history of his whole mind, 
and of his whole management of the school. 
But to his hearers it was more than this. It 
was the man himself, there, more than in any 
other place, concentrating all his faculties and 
feelings on one sole object, combating face to 
^ ^ta,-al&j''s Life of Arnold, pp. 152-158. 



DR. WAYLAND AS A PREACHER. 237 

face the evil, with which directly or indirectly 
he was elsewhere perpetually struggling. He 
was not the preacher or the clergyman, who had 
left behind all his usual thought and occupa- 
tions, as soon as he had ascended the pulpit. 
He was still the scholar, the historian, and the 
theologian, basing all that he said, not indeed 
ostensibly, but consciously, and often visibly, on 
the deepest principles of the past and present. 
He was still the instructor and the schoolmaster, 
only teaching and educating with increased so- 
lemnity and energy. He was still the simple- 
hearted and earnest man, laboring to win others 
to share in his own personal feelings of disgust 
at sin, and love of goodness, and to trust to the 
same faith in which he hoped to live and die 
himself." 

The influence he wielded in the college pulpit 
was thus one of the most salient featui-es of Dr. 
Wayland's career. It could not be said of him 
that he was an orator, yet at times these sermons 
rose to an eloquence seldom surpassed in the 
pulpit. His noble and commanding presence, 
his depth and trueness of moral and religious 
feeling, his absolute independence of thought, 
his high sense of responsibility as the ambassa- 
dor of God, his solemn and unaffected concern 
for the spiritual welfare of the students, his 
thorough preparation for the service, all were 



238 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

elements of tliis powei\ Let one such sermon 
be recalled in illustration of what his preaching 
could do in moulding student character. It was 
on a Sunday afternoon in June, 1850. The 
senior class was nearing its graduation. His 
teachings were at such a time apt to take a 
somewhat wider range, and touch on issues then 
confronting the men soon to take part in active 
life. The Fugitive Slave Law had been passed. 
The Northern conscience had been roused at the 
possibility of being called on to take part in 
the arrest of fugitive slaves. His theme for that 
Sunday was on the necessity of individual benev- 
olence to the stability of civil society. In the 
course of the sermon he had occasion to speak 
of human oppression and oppressors. Evidently 
his own soul was on fire with indignation against 
the enactment which hung over the head of 
every man in the North. There was no direct 
allusion to it. But breaking loose from the 
manuscript before him, pushing up his glasses 
on his forehead, as his wont was on occasion, he 
burst into extempore speech on the nature of 
human oppression, its injustice, and its intolera- 
ble evils. His whole frame seemed to dilate, the 
deep-sunken eye flashed from under the shaggy, 
overhanging brow, his voice trembled, and the 
sentences charged with the intensest feeling, but 
weighty with the noblest convictions, fell like 



DR. WAYLAND AS A PREACHER. 239 

bolts upon the audience. The moral grandeur 
of the whole scene left indelible impressions on 
the memory of every student. Such outbursts 
were not uncommon. They measured always 
the high-water mark in his power to stamp moral 
impressions on his hearers. It is the quality to 
which an eminent lawyer of Providence ^ alluded 
when, at the meeting called to take some public 
notice of Dr. Wayland's death, he said : " If I 
were to speak of the things done by him which 
I think were most remarkable, I should not fix 
upon any of the great works by which he is 
known all over the Christian world. I should 
recall some of the sermons which he preached in 
the old chapel on what was called the Annual 
College Fast, some of those occasions upon which 
he laid himself alongside of the young men in 
college, and, with all the earnestness of which he 
was capable, tried to bring them to his way of 
thinking upon the subject of religion. I have 
never heard anything in human speech superior 
to passages in some of these addresses. And I 
am very much mistaken if, when that sifting pro- 
cess has been performed upon his works which 
has to be performed upon the works of every 
author, some of those University Sermons, as I 
believe they were called, will not survive every- 
thing else that he has written or spoken." 

^ Abram Payne, Esq, 



240 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

While the volume of University Sermons does 
not convey an adequate idea of the range taken 
in his pulj)it efforts, they do illustrate some of 
his distinctive traits as a university preacher. 
The most obvious of these is the breadth of treat- 
ment which he brought to all questions. In the 
sermons on " Theoretical and Practical Athe- 
ism," in those on the " Moral Character of Man," 
this is specially manifest. We move in the 
larger circles of thought. The discussion never 
drops into the smaller issues, important of course, 
but not in touch with the generalizing method 
he pursued. Every hearer of sermons is accus- 
tomed to recognize the sudden contraction of in- 
terest when such a drop occurs. It is this large 
treatment more, perhaps, than any subtilty of ar- 
gument, more certainly than any brilliant origi- 
nality of style, which at the time gave these dis- 
courses their power on the young minds listen- 
ing to them. Here and there are passages in 
which style and thought alike move in this im- 
pressive sweep, -One such is found in the ser- 
mon on " Love to Man." ^ He had been dis- 
cussing the truth that the history of human gov- 
ernments furnishes a striking illustration of the 
fact that man does not love his neighbor as him- 
self. After an allusion to the expenditure of 
human talent toward a solution of the problem 

^ University Sermons, p. 74. 



■ DR. WAYLAND AS A PREACHER. 241 

how to secure stable government, and also the 
liberties of the governed, he proceeds : — 

" Hence it has happened, I think, that the 
most stable governments on earth have been civil 
or spiritual despotisms. When rulers form an 
intelligent and vigilant caste, and can withhold 
from the people a knowledge of their rights ; or 
when a priesthood can persuade them that their 
eternal salvation depends upon unquestioning 
obedience to the mandates of a hierarchy ; and 
specially when these two forms of despotism can 
be united, — that is, when you can deprive men 
of the exercise of their reason and conscience, 
until, in some of the most important respects, 
they cease to be men, — then, they may be gov- 
erned in quietness. If you can turn men into 
brutes, you may govern them like brutes. But 
restore them to their rank, as the intelligent and 
responsible creatures of God, and their passions, 
stimulated by liberty, defy restraint, and ren- 
der a permanent government almost impossible. 
Hence it has been so often remarked that the 
civil institutions of man have, in all ages, trod- 
den with greater or less rapidity the same in- 
variable circle, from anarchy to despotism, and 
from despotism again to anarchy. The forms of 
government which have endured longest have 
been those which have vibrated from time to 
time between opposite extremes. When this 



242 FRANCIS WATLAND. 

invariable circle has been trodden slowly, tlie 
changes have been less violent, and mankind 
have, at intervals of peace, been permitted to 
enjoy the blessings bestowed upon them by their 
Creator ; where, on the other hand, this circle 
has been rapidly passed over, and civil institu- 
tions, by the turbulence of passion, have been fre- 
quently overturned, the race of man, woi'u out 
with the struggle, has ceased from the earth ; 
and thus it has happened that whole regions, 
once the abode of wealth and civilization, are 
now a wilderness ; and the remains of once pop- 
ulous cities have become the lair of the lion and 
the hiding-place of the jackal." 

His sermons had also a tone of mental inde- 
pendence about them which gave them added 
power over a student audience. It was evident 
that he belonged to no school in theology, and 
that he held all party allegiance to be subser- 
vient to a higher moral allegiance. " I stand," 
he said in a letter to Dr. Withington,^ "to 
whatever God has said ; what men infer from 
it is merely human, and weighs with me just 
nothing." In the same letter he defines his doc- 
trinal position as that of a " moderate Calvinist." 
" The sharp angles of Calvinism, which need to 
be filed and hammered out in order to make a 
system, I desire to hold no opinion about. It 

^ Memoirs, vol. i. p. 126. 



DR. WAYLAND AS A PREACHER. 243 

seems to me that the fault of all theological sys- 
tems arises from logical sequences drawn from 
some revealed truth." When, therefore, he came 
to handle doctrinal subjects in the pulpit, he 
treated them in his own way, following no re- 
ceived opinions unless they squared with his own 
thinking. Thus he rejects such a term as " to- 
tal depravity." No such character, in his view, 
is ascribed to man in the Scriptures. In his ser- 
mon on the work of the Messiah, he laid great 
stress on the subjective elements of the atone- 
ment in Christ's obedience and character. For 
this he was criticised as failing to present a com- 
plete view of the doctrine. His sermons on 
the unity of the church, breathing as they do 
that generous and ample catholicity of sjjirit so 
marked in him, were said to be open to the 
charge of " latitudinarianism." But never speak- 
ing as the mouthpiece of a school or sect, he 
spoke with all the more effect to the young men 
who made up his audience. He held with Chil- 
lingworth that " nothing is necessary to be be- 
lieved but what is plainly revealed." Into these 
plain revelations he threw his whole soul. They 
made the staple of his preaching in the college 
chapel as elsewhere. Nothing in the shape of 
a speculative argument ever escaped him. His 
University Sermons are all in the best and deep- 
est sense practical. This aim affects their style. 



244 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

They are models of Saxon directness, saying 
things withoui circumlocution, and saying them 
in terse, clear sentences, which have in them at 
once transparent sincerity and moral energy. 

It would give no complete view of what Dr. 
Wayland was as a university preacher were 
certain adjuncts to that preaching not consid- 
ered ; one of these was his devotional exercises, 
the other his pastoral work among the students. 
The importance of daily worship in the college 
chapel is best realized when that worship is 
worthily conducted. Students are quick to de- 
tect whatever is conventional, whatever savors 
of cant, whatever is cheap and common. On 
the other hand, they respond to what is sincere 
and high in such devotions. The plea for vol- 
untary attendance on chapel services would be 
shorn of nearly all its force, if the devotional 
exercises in our chapels were what they ought to 
be. But the students of Brown University, re- 
calling the little, ill-lighted chapel, with its wide 
gallery, its narrow stairs, its well-carved benches, 
must always regret its disappearance, or rather 
its transformation into a modern lecture room. 
It is indelibly associated with Dr. Wayland's 
majestic presence on early winter mornings, or 
on evenings, when the recitations for the day 
ended, he led the devotions of the college in 
those brief but most solemnly impressive prayers. 



DR. WAY LAND AS A PREACHER. 245 

It may be that there was " disregard of conven- 
tional proprieties," yet there was always a " gen- 
uine and awful sense of divine sanctities." The 
educating power of such services cannot well be 
overestimated. To hear Dr. Wayland in these 
prayers was to be conscious of a soul realizing 
the dread fact of the Divine Presence fully to 
itself, and by the power of personal influence 
bringing the young minds before the mercy-seat 
under the same subduing consciousness. What 
he was in the daily chapel exercises, he was even 
more in the devotions preceding and following 
his sermons. At times they rose certainly to a 
height of moral impressiveness which makes 
them live forever in the memory of his pupils. 
The stillness of the College Chapel on such occa- 
sions was almost oppressive. They prepared the 
soul for reception of the truth. It was, to use 
an old term, " solemnized." They deepened the 
impression the truth had made. They were ut- 
tered when his own moral nature had been deeply 
roused by his presentation of the truth, and then 
came those outbursts of emotion de profundis 
which affect other souls only as the pent-up feel- 
ings of a strong" nature can. An instance of 
this remarkable power in prayer is given in the 
" Memoirs " ^ in connection with the opening of 
a term of the United States Court, Mr. Justice 
Story presiding : — 

1 Vol. i. p. 273. 



246 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

"It was an invocation of the presence of God 
as the author and source of all justice, and the 
Being before whom the judges of the earth would 
all stand to give an account of the manner in 
which they had administered the laws among 
men. An allusion to the omnipresence of God 
made me tremble. ' Hell is naked before thee, 
and destruction hath no covering.' I recall no 
passages in his sermons or addresses that surpass 
in sublimity some portions of that prayer. Spec- 
tators, jurors, advocates, and judges were hushed 
into perfect stillness during its utterance ; and I 
asked myself who, during that session of court, 
would dare to connive at injustice or to devise 
or award anything which would not be approved 
at the final judgment day. The court seemed 
to me but a faint and poor imitation of the great 
tribunal before which we must all appear." 

Another adjunct to his work as university 
preacher was his pastoral care of young men. 
While this was never laid aside wholly, it was in 
the revivals occurring during his presidency that 
it was most conspicuous. Five of these stand 
out prominently in the religious history of the 
college. In the years 1834, 1838-41, 1847, and 
1848-50, there occurred these religious awaken- 
ings which have left in the Christian career of 
such men as the late Dr. Henry M. Dexter, edi- 
tor of the " Congregationalist," Professor George 



DR. WAY LAND AS A PREACHER. 247 

P. Fisher, President James B. Aiigell, and the 
late Professor Diman, lasting impressions on the 
history of the American Church. These men all 
came directly under Dr. Wayland's Christian 
guidance. The eye-witnesses of such seasons can 
never forget their absorbing impressiveness and 
power, although the work of the college went 
regularly on. There was no sort of "profession- 
alism " in the conduct of the services. It was sim- 
ply and absolutely a manly, thoughtful, serious at- 
tention to the demands of Christian life upon the 
soul. Then it was that Dr. Wayland showed his 
full power as a religious guide. In his off-hand 
addresses at the college prayer meetings, held in 
the old chapel in University Hall, he reasoned 
with and appealed to the students out of a soul 
full to overflowing with a sense of the adapted- 
ness of the Gospel of Christ to their minds. They 
were solemn at times with an unutterable solem- 
nity, as he spoke of eternal interests. They were 
tender at times with a subduing pathos, as his 
own great heart melted under some view of the 
love of Christ. They were awful, when occasion- 
ally he dwelt on sin and its consequences. To 
quote the words of a distinguished lawyer, " he 
laid himself alongside of the young men," and 
the closeness of the contact was felt by every 
heart and conscience. But his efforts did not 
end with these addresses. He was sousiht out in 



248 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

the seclusion of his study by young men who had 
doubts to be solved, or difficulties to be removed, 
who needed guidance in his pastoral care of 
their struggling souls. These interviews have 
been described by more than one of his pupils. 
Professor J. L. Diman has in a tribute to Dr. 
Wayland ^ put on record the following which is 
drawn from his own experience. 

"In the most difficult task of dealing with 
young men at the crisis of their spiritual history, 
Dr. Wayland was unsurpassed. How wise and 
tender his counsels at such a time ! How many 
who have timidly stolen to his study door, their 
souls burdened with strange thoughts and be- 
wildered with unaccustomed questionings, re- 
member with what instant appreciation of their 
errand the green shade was lifted from the eye, 
the volume thrown aside, and with what genuine 
hearty interest that whole countenance would 
beam ! At such an interview he would often 
read the parable of the returning prodigal, and 
who that heard can ever forget the pathos with 
which he would dwell upon the words." 

His wisdom was apparent in all these inter- 
views. He eschewed any stereotyped form of 
dealing with religious inquirers. More fre- 
quently than any other method, he used the par- 
able of the prodigal son, as Professor Diman 
1 Atlantic Monthly, vol. xxi. p. Tl. 



I)R. WAY LAND AS A PREACHER 249 

has suggested, reading it verse by verse, and 
making it the steps of a return to God in the 
case of the soul with whom he was dealing. He 
had common sense too in his methods. To one 
student, whose brain was weary with thinking 
he said, " Go off and walk. Be in the air all 
day." His advice to another ^ to " make one 
honest effort " has, with the incident that called 
it forth, been made the subject of a tract of wide 
usefulness. 

His Bible class was another agency in mould- 
ing the religious character of the students. It 
does not appear that in Brown University, so far 
as the curriculum of study was concerned, any 
course of Biblical study was j)rovided for. Early, 
however, in his presidential career, he gave the 
students opportunity for systematic study of the 
Scriptures, by instituting his so-called " Bible 
Class," which was conspicuous in the religions 
history of the college during his presidency. 
The power he had gained in the class-room, as 
instructor, was all subsidized for the teaching of 
the word of God. This class was held on Sunday 
evenings in the old chapel. Attendance of course 
was voluntary. The Epistle to the Romans was 
the portion of the Scriptures ordinarily chosen 

^ The son of the clergyman, Dr. Malcom, who in the strug- 
gling years of Dr. Wayland had offered him generous aid in 
the completion of his studies. 



250 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

for study. Tliat gave him opportunity and scope 
for those broad discussions of man's moral na- 
ture in which he so delighted. It enabled him 
to expound the redemptive system in which he 
found the only hope for the race. Yet in all his 
instruction there was no attempt to formulate a 
theological system nor to bring in the apostle's 
teaching in support of any. It could not have 
been ascertained from his expositions to what 
denomination of Christians he belonged. De- 
voted, conscientious Baptist though he was, yet 
his denominationalism was shut out of the col- 
lege walls as strenuously as he sought to bring 
into them the powers of the world to come. His 
study of the epistle was minute. Every word 
was subjected to scrutiny. The year of study 
he had pursued at Andover under Professor 
Stuart, had qualified him to bring an intelligent 
exegesis into play. The best evidence of its 
fruitfulness as a means of good is seen in the 
fact, that the discussions then begun were after- 
ward carried on in college rooms, and seen also 
in the remembrance which every student in that 
Bible class cherishes of its profitable hours. 

Of Dr. Wayland's sermons during his tem- 
porary pastorate of the First Baptist Church 
1857-8, it is perhaps to be regretted that so few 
were published. The volume entitled " Sermons 
to the Churches," published in 1858, is made up 



DR. WAY LAND AS A PREACHER. 251 

of occasional and baccalaureate sermons mainly, 
the last three only representing his latest style 
of preaching, that of this brief pastoral charge.^ 
It had changed somewhat. It was less elaborate, 
less ornate. The utmost simplicity and direct- 
ness were now his constant aim. There was the 
same felicity of illustration, but the illustrations 
were of a more familiar cast. Perhaps also the 
comment made by a hearer gives another aspect 
of it : " His preaching was moral philosophy ani- 
mated by the spirit of the Gospel." Illustrations 
of this may be readily found in his sermon on 
the " Perils of Riches," ^ and in those called forth 
by the financial crisis of 1857. Indeed, it is an 
instructive lesson in homiletics to notice how he 
brought his studies in political economy to bear 
on the presentation of such and kindred topics. 

Dr. Wayland passed successfully the varied 
tests to which the pulpit can be subjected. An 
analysis of the sources of power in his preaching 
would reveal the following elements : He was at 
home in the ordinary parish sermon. He could 
rise to the height of a great occasion. He could 
preach with equal felicity to boys in the Reform 
School or to students in the university. He was 

^ Besides these, two preached during the financial crisis of 
1857, entitled Thoughts on the Present Distress, were pub- 
lished by request. 

^ Sermons to the Churches, pp. 211-213. 



262 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

ready to meet the emergencies of so-called " re- 
vival seasons." He could bring ethical truths to 
bear on the questions of the day with the same 
force. 

Unquestionably this varied power was owing 
to the strength and depth of his own moral na- 
ture. This dominated his whole being. Hence 
whenever he spoke on such themes, the whole 
man was roused. His intellect was in full play, 
his emotions were excited, his sense of the moral 
world and its supremacy possessed him utterly, 
and gave him a magnetic hold on his audience. 
Then, too, he kej)t a steady control of his hear- 
ers by the masterly analysis of his subjects, his 
clear statements, his freedom from all rhetor- 
ical deviations or circumlocutions, his apt illus- 
trations, his Saxon speech, his concise reasoning. 
With him everything was practical in the best 
sense of that word. He never speculated any- 
where, least of all in the pulpit. His doctrinal 
sermons are among his most practical. Compare 
those on " The Fall of Man " with that remarka- 
ble discourse on a " Day in the Life of Jesus of 
Nazareth," and the balance of practical teaching 
will be found in favor of the former. 

To all this must be added the effect of his 
personal presence. No stranger could have seen 
him rise in the pulpit to begin the service with- 
out being impressed with the singular majesty 



DR. WAYLAND AS A PREACHER. 253 

of that presence, specially in later years, when 
the angular frame had filled out to its full and 
noble proportions. The brow, the eye, the swar- 
thy complexion, were Websterian. The voice 
was deep and solemn in its tones. There was 
little or no gesture. There was no elocution save 
that of deep feeling. But everything in the 
make-up of that wonderful figure, the head, the 
brow, the deep-set eye, the massive frame, the 
awe in his voice as he began the invocation, 
blended to make his presence one of power in 
itself. It made its own impression at once, and 
everything thenceforward deepened it ; his man- 
ner of reading the Scriptures, so impressive al- 
ways, so full of interpretative aid as his tones 
varied with the different meanings ; his prayers 
so richly spiritual, so child-like, so earnest ; and 
lastly the sermon, when he brought into play 
the qualities already named with all their effec- 
tiveness, no one ever heard him at such times 
without confessing the power of a great religious 
teacher. 



CHAPTER IX. 

DR. WAYLAND AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND 
CITIZEN. 

That pliilanthropy is assuming its rightful 
place in the thoughts of American citizens is no 
doubt true. Progress in this direction has for 
years been conspicuous. Its range has been 
broadened, its methods have become enlightened, 
its motives recognized and felt, its successes 
established. The case was far different when 
Dr. Wayland entered on his career. The phil- 
anthropic spirit needed awakening. Philan- 
thropic movements were not begun, or were 
inefficiently directed, which since have accom- 
plished bi-illiant results in bettering the condition 
of the wretched and suffering, in checking social 
evils, in promoting human welfare. It is not 
claiming too much to say that he was a pioneer in 
this direction. This feature of his character was 
largely owing to influences exerted on his child- 
hood by his mother. From her he had learned 
abhorrence of every form of human oppression. 
From her, too, he had learned to sympathize with 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 255 

the efforts made for all forms of human advance- 
ment. It need scarcely be said that his philan- 
thropy was shaped and colored by distinctively 
Christian views. Its foundations he recognized as 
laid in the Christian religion. Its motives were 
drawn from the same source. It was fortified by 
his studies in Moral Science and further by those 
in Political Economy. If it had any one feature 
more salient than the rest it was his insistence 
upon individual, as contrasted with associated, 
philanthropy. He came in later years to distrust 
the tendency manifest in the multiplication of 
organizations. He never hesitated to avow his 
dissent from what he considered the mistakes of 
such organizations. He thought that reliance on 
these dwarfed the sense of individual responsi- 
bility. This was to him the foremost element in 
all moral success. No man was earlier than he 
in advocating the cause of temperance. No man 
ever stood more firmly in that advocacy. Yet 
he did not hesitate, in his work on the " Limita- 
tions of Human Responsibility," to indicate 
views on the subject of pledges to total absti- 
nence different from those urged with so much 
pertinacity by temperance reformers. From the 
beginning, he took the highest ground on the 
wrongfulness of the system of slavery in the 
South. Yet in his first letter to Dr. Richard 
FuUer, he said, " I unite with you and the late 



256 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

lamented Dr. Channing in the opinion that the 
tone o£ the Abolitionists at the North has been 
frequently, I fear I must say generally, fierce, 
bitter, and abusive. The abolition press has, 
I believe, from the beginning too commonly in- 
dulged in exaggerated statement, in violent de- 
nunciation, and in coarse and lacerating invec- 
tive."^ He was by no means insensible to the 
advantage of associated effort, was ready to 
organize movements in any direction which 
promised healthy promotion of humane objects. 
But he was their best friend, because he was 
their candid friend, never carried away by 
enthusiasm, nor controlled by mere sentiment, 
pointing out their possible dangers, and insisting 
on the point, that they could wisely live and 
grow only as the prior and fundamental fact of 
individual benevolence and benevolent activity 
was fully acknowledged. 

Nor was his philanthropy addicted in the least 
to hobbies. The singular breadth of his interest 
in charities can only be seen by a review of his 
philanthropic work. This started in his bold 
and brilliant appeal for the missionary enterprise 

^ It is however only just to say that had Dr. Wayland lived 
to see the work of emancipation fully accomplished by the 
terrible agency of civil war, and after the stormy passions of 
the long antislavery struggle had fully subsided, no man 
would have sooner recognized the merits of these abolitionists 
and as emphatically as he had once condemned their faults. 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 257 

in his well-known Missionary Discourse. The 
change of his sphere of labor from a Boston 
pulpit to the presidency of Brown University 
resulted in no change in the workings of his phil- 
anthropic spirit. He found on coming to Provi- 
dence that his first work in the promotion of 
benevolence must be to awaken the people to 
some comprehension of demands upon thera 
which ought to be recognized. They were con- 
tracted in their views rather than indifferent or 
mean. Tiiey needed and they welcomed his 
enlightenment of their ignorance. He availed 
himself of every opportunit}^ in public and in 
private, to disseminate throughout the commu- 
nity correct views upon the subject. His voice 
and purse and pen were ever at the service of 
any meritorious public enterprise.^ Local chari- 
ties, such as the Rhode Island Bible Society, the 
"Tract and School Society," an organization 
designed to establish schools for the poor in all 
jjarts of the State, the " Providence Dispensary," 
were the first objects on which he concentrated 
his efforts. On the 20th of October, 1831, he 
gave an address before the Providence Temper- 
ance Society. Tliat address, subsequently pub- 
lished in his volume of Discourses, had an influ- 
ence far outside its mere local surroundings. It 
was occasioned in part by a drunken riot in the 
^ Memoir, vol. i. p. 334. 



258 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

suburbs of Providence, resulting in the destruc- 
tion o£ several buildings and the loss of several 
lives. Of this incident the address made skill- 
ful use. But its power was resident in its calm, 
well reasoned, moral appeals, its high and unas- 
sailable reasonings. It took its place at once 
as a tocsin of righteous alarm at the dangers 
threatening society by the unchecked growth of 
intemperance ; and in the days when few such 
appeals came from the high places of learning, 
he lent the influence of his position to the then 
struggling cause of temperance reform. It 
was in this reform that Dr. Wayland urged 
most strenuously the importance of individual 
effort. He exalted this above legislation. In 
fact he had grave doubts on the efficiency of 
some modern legislative expedients. To a 
clergyman he wrote in 1860, when the Maine 
prohibitory law was attracting wide attention, 
"I am much perplexed about the Maine law 
question, and do not see my way clear. All our 
efforts thus far seem failures, and I fear we are 
working on the wrong track. What is the use of 
trying to punish Irishmen for selling liquor, when 
mayors, judges, and tlie highest men in social 
standing make people drunk at parties ? No law 
can be effective which does not strike all alike. 
The ' rummies ' (I mean the poor ones) have 
the best of the argument. I do not know what 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 259 

to do. Church members are as mnch in the 
wrong as others. In such cases what can law 
effect ? Hence I doubt." 

But he never wavered in his insistence on the 
duty of individual effort nor in his faith in the 
power of personal appeal. Having heard of a 
notorious saloon keeper in Providence, whose 
saloon was the centre of attraction and conse- 
quent ruin to a number of young men, he 
determined to have an interview with its pro- 
prietor and lay before him an earnest argument 
against his calling:. For a long time all his 
efforts to gain such an interview were baffled. 
At last, however, the two met. Dr. Wayland 
used all his power of argument. It was not lost. 
Argument convinced, and appeal influenced the 
man. He abandoned his traffic, and became 
a changed man in character. 

When tidings reached this country of any wide- 
spread suffering in other lands, it was eminently 
characteristic of Dr. Wayland that he at once 
assumed leadership in attempts at relief. These 
were in his view not simply opportunities for the 
exercise of charity, — for the cultivation of hu- 
mane sympathies. They were opportunities for 
strengthening the bond of human brotherhood. 
They were the offset to war as a devastating 
agent. They were the golden occasions for 
Christian philanthropy, bringing nations more 



260 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

closely together. The international importance 
of liberal responses to all such appeals for help 
was uppermost in his mind. He believed in 
their educating power upon the world, and hence 
threw his whole soul into their promotion. One 
such occasion was furnished in the Irish famine. 
He wrote his sister, ..." This morning I have 
been out in behalf of the Irish. In less than 
two hours we raised here sixteen hundred dollars. 
We hope to increase it to seven thousand 
dollars, and send it by the next steamer. The 
amount received by Great Britain from this 
country will be large, and I hope it will set a 
new example of national intercourse. It is noble 
to see such efforts in behalf of humanity, for the 
sake of Christ, and even for the sake of general 
benevolence. It shows that the Gospel of Christ 
is influencing nations. It is a bright spot in 
the darkness that in many directions seems so 
closely to envelop us." 

Another such occasion was the massacre of 
the Syrian Christians by the Druses in 1860. 
He stepped forward at once to organize among 
the citizens of Providence plans for relief. He 
began a correspondence with Rev. Dr. Ander- 
son, of the American Board of Missions, as to 
the best method. Apparently the committee 
having the matter in charge moved too slowly 
to suit his more eager spirit, for after a few 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 261 

days he wrote to Dr. Anderson again as fol- 
lows : — 

" I wish you would use the inclosed 8 in 

such manner as will do the most good to the 
Syrian sufferers. I cannot wait for our com- 
mittee." 

He was an early opponent of indisci-iminate 
charity, an early advocate of methods of relief 
which leave the self-respect of the poor un- 
harmed. The " poor laws " of England, the 
" soup - house systems," had been subjects of his 
study. He anticipated many of the conclusions 
reached and urged by the modern students of 
social science on this subject. In the year 1857, 
when, in consequence of the financial panic, la- 
bor found no employment, and suffering among 
the working classes was widespread, " he origi- 
nated the conception of the Providence Aid So- 
ciety, whose main design was to supply work to 
the destitute by opening an office, where all 
needing employment, and those able to furnish 
employment, could be brought together." Dur- 
ing his lifetime he remained at the head of this 
organization, which has had since its institution 
many imitators in all parts of the country. In 
local charities like this, also the Butler Hospital 
for the Insane and the Rhode Island Hospital, his 
philanthropy was conspicuous, alike in the time 
and labor spent upon their boards, and in active 



262 FEANCIS WAYLANB. 

efforts to secure their efficiency. The Annual 
Keport of the Butler Hospital for 1865, in a dis- 
criminating notice of his death, takes occasion to 
" testify to his remarkable individual exertions 
to promote the end sought to be attained " in 
that and other institutions, whose object was the 
relief of human suffering. He had a fine eon- 
tempt for a species of professional philanthropy, 
eloquent upon platforms, discoursing of human 
wrongs and human wretchedness with sentimen- 
tal appeals and voluble denunciation, but which 
only made this a matter of speech-making or 
worse, a sort of capital for popularity. His 
deeds went with his words, went before his words 
often, and of no man could it be more truly said 
that his philanthropy was that of common sense 
as well as common humanity. He had studied 
with care the lives of such philanthropists as 
John Howard, Caroline Fry, and George Miil- 
ler.^ That in them which most impressed and 
moved him was the self-denying, individual la- 
bors they had put forth. He never wearied of 
referring to them in his class room and from the 
pulpit. He had studied the career of John 
Howard, as thoroughly as he had that of Lord 
Erskine and Napoleon I. There was in it an 
element of the morally heroic which stirred his 
nature to its depths. 

1 Memoir, vol. ii. p. 259. 



AS A PTIILANTHROnST AND CITIZEN. 263 

The two spheres in which his philanthropic 
spirit was most conspicuously shown were, op- 
position to American slavery, and efforts for 
ameliorating the condition of the criminal classes. 
From the beginning of his presidency, he had 
taught his classes a doctrine of human rights, 
which would cut up by the roots all forms of hu- 
man bondage. The publication of his " Moral 
Science " gave him a national reputation along 
this line of philanthropic effort. In the year 
1844, he held through the columns of the " Chris- 
tian Reflector " a prolonged debate with Rev. Dr. 
Richard Fuller, of Baltimore, on the system of 
domestic slavery in the South. The discussion 
was occasioned by Dr. Fuller's animadversions 
on that part of Dr. Way land's " Moral Science " 
which treated of the New Testament view of 
slavery.^ The position held by Dr. Fuller was 
that the Bible sanctioned slavery, could be ap- 
pealed to as authority for maintenance of the 
system in the South, apart from the acknow- 
ledged abuses. It was an instance of the change 
which had come over the South, change from a 
tone of apology to that of defense, of tolerance 
for a time to assertion of inherent good in the 
system justifying its perpetuation and extension. 

Dr. Wayland was averse to controversy. He 
had no desire to appear on the arena of a public 

^ Fuller and Wayland on Domestic Slavery, pp. 4, 5. 



264 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

debate, sure to arrest attention as a contest be- 
tween champions. He was not polemic. For 
theological controversies lie had a rooted dislike. 
But he saw that he could not keep silent in this 
emergency. He took up the gage Dr. Fuller 
had flung down. The debate centred around 
the question of Scriptural authority for South- 
ern slavery. He entered on it with solemn 
prayer to Almighty God and with high intent 
for Christian philanthropy.^ 

Two things were accomplished by him. First, 
he made a noble defense of the Scriptures from 
the claim that they furnished a legitimate 
ground for the system of slavery at the South. 
Secondly, he gave the rising antislavery senti- 
ment of the North new impetus and more intel- 
ligent basis. The debate, a model of Christian 
courtesy between the two disputants, attracted 
wide attention in its day. It was only one more 
public event which educated, as it developed, the 
antislavery sentiment of the North. 

It was, however, in connection with the crimi- 
nal classes that his philanthropy was most strik- 
ingly manifest. He was for many years Presi- 
dent of the Prison Discipline Society. He had 
been too close a student of political economy, 
too close an observer of the working of our 
social systems, too well read in statistics of 
1 Merfiotiv, vpl. ii. p. 57. 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 265 

crime, not to bring- his philanthropy to bear on 
the knotty problem, the *•' reformation of con- 
victs." That chapter in his life ^ which reveals 
his personal efforts in this direction may well be 
considered one of its most remarkable features. 
It can here be only briefly told. In the year 
1851, the governor of the State offered him a 
place on the board of Inspectors of the State 
Prison and the Providence County Jail. His 
first question, after receiving the offer, was 
" whether any salary attached to the office." 
Assured that the labor connected with it was 
wholly gratuitous, the appointment was promptly 
accepted. He was made chairman of the board, 
and on him for many years was devolved the 
duty of preparing the annual report. Those re- 
ports contain a striking history of prison reform. 
They also disclose a remarkable amount of work, 
of wise, unflinching investigation, of successful 
undertaking. At the time when Dr. Waylancl 
entered on this field of labor, and it was when 
he was much engrossed with the plan of recon- 
struction for the college, both the state prison 
and the Providence jail were a burden of ex- 
pense to the State. " In 1846, the exjiense ex- 
ceeded the revenue by -f 7,563 ; in 1848, by 
i5,462. In addition to this the state prison 
was built on a plan which admitted of no venti- 
^ Memoir, vol. ii. pp. 339-351. 



266 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

lation, no warmth, no proper lighting. The air 
was as foul as that of Newgate in the time of De 
Foe. The natural results followed. Disease was 
common and malignant in its type. There was 
no hospital for the sick. The cells were occupied 
by more than one inmate, in some instances by 
more than two. There was no prison library. 
There was no chapel. " The female convicts, 
from ten to twenty in number, were crowded 
into two or three cells. ^ And what was true of 
the state prison was only more horribly true of 
the county jail. 

The new board of inspection, with Dr. Way- 
land at its head and as its guiding spirit, en- 
tered at once on a work of thorough reform. 
Better accommodations for the prisoners were at 
once secured. A library for the convicts was 
obtained. A hospital also was provided. The 
labor of the prisoners in state prison and jail 
by the year 1862 more than paid the expenses 
of both. A chapel for religious worshijD was 
built. Tlie moral character of the prisoners im- 
proved. In short. Dr. Wayland and his asso- 
ciates had effected a thorough reformation of 
the abuses which had long prevailed in the 
prison administration. The amount of effort 

^ In each of the small cells (in the county jail), ten feet by 
twelve, six or eight females were confined night and day. 
Memoir, vol. ii. p. 342. 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 267 

which he gave to this object was enormous. In 
dealing with the legislature the weight of his 
name was enough to secure all needed cooper- 
ation. There was no period of his life which 
was more exacting of toil in his presidential 
office than the years from 1850-56, and yet 
these were the years in which he undertook the 
work of prison reform. Nor have we reached 
any adequate idea of what these labors were till 
we consider the unofficial work he performed 
for the religious welfare of the inmates of the 
prison. He preached often to them on Sunday. 
He was superintendent of the Sunday-school 
established for the convicts, and taught a class 
in it. Sabbath after Sabbath, in storm or shine, 
he was to be seen w^ending his way to the prison, 
to gather that class around him, and to unfold 
to them in his j)lain, impressive, fitting way the 
religion of Jesus. He was a fellow-worshiper 
with the convicts in the prison chapel by choice, 
till he assumed temporarily the pastorate of the 
First Baptist Church. Some of his comments in 
this connection are very characteristic. To the 
chaplain of the prison he said more than once, 
" I never enjoyed religious worship more than 
in this place and with this congregation." On 
another occasion he remarked, " If the Saviour 
were to visit the city of Providence, I do not 
know any place where He would be more likely 



268 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

to be found than here." Of his Bible class, he 
said, " I love to preach the Gospel to these poor 
fellows in all its precious promises. How 
adapted it is to ^ meet the wants of just such 
men ! " No wonder that when the chaplain of 
the state prison on the Sunday morning after 
his death, said to the convicts gathered in the 
chapel, " You will never see your friend Dr. 
Wayland again ; he is dead," he was answered 
by their sobs. 

He had no official relations with the Provi- 
dence Reform School. But these in his case 
were not needful to elicit from him a hearty co- 
operation in its objects. He was a weekly vis- 
itor there " for a long time," we are told, knew 
personally each of the boys, and understood his 
disposition, his temptations, and his history. It 
was an audience he loved to speak to, and an 
audience which delighted to hear him. He had 
no clap-trap methods of gaining their attention. 
He never resorted to story-telling as a device to 
insure a hearing. It was the simplest of con- 
versations with them rather than set speech. 
And when the boys were asked, " Whom do you 
want to have speak to you?" the two names most 
often mentioned were Gilbert Congdon (a min- 
ister among the Quakers) and Dr. Wayland. 
"I once," said the gentleman who had charge 
of securing the Sunday address, " engaged two 



AS A PHILANTHROFJST AND CITIZEN. 269 

young gentlemen to speak, and also Dr. Way- 
land. The day proved frightful. There was a 
foot of snow on the ground ; it had been and 
still was raining. The snow was all slush. The 
two young gentlemen did not ajspear, but, punc- 
tual to the hour, there was Dr. Wayland." He 
knew his audience would be waiting for him, 
and he would not disappoint them. 

When Dr. Caswell spoke of President Way- 
land in happy phrase as the " first citizen of 
Rhode Island," he indicated what was a promi- 
nent feature of his career. Citizenship in Dr, 
Wayland' s view was invested with sacred respouv 
sibilities. Though not widely read in history he 
had thought much and deeply on the subject. He 
was ever a watchful observer of current events, 
especially in their moral and intellectual bear- 
ings. He believed profoundly that educated 
men held special trusts in the development of 
our republican institutions. He never took ref- 
uge in scholastic pursuits as absolving him from 
active participation in the duties of a citizen. 
All this is foreshadowed in his sermons on the 
duties of an American citizen, preached in Bos- 
ton in 1825. His earlier political training had 
been in sympathy with the Republicans, then 
dividing political control of the country with the 
Federalists, on the grounds commonly held by 
Baptists in those days : that the Republican 



270 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

party was more favorable than the Federal- 
ist to unrestricted freedom in matters of re- 
ligious opinion. 1 This view in general shaped 
his whole subsequent career. On coming to 
Rhode Island, he found himself in ardent sym- 
pathy with Roger Williams's doctrine of " soul 
liberty." He loved all the early traditions of 
Rhode Island history. He was, by adoption 
only, a Rhode Islander ; and yet no native of 
her soil ever had a greater pride in his State, 
nor a more constant devotion to her welfare. 
Holding such views on the responsibilities of 
citizenship, every crisis in state or national af- 
fairs brought him forward as an active citizen. 
He wrote or he spoke in order to mould a right 
public sentiment. He could face temporary un- 
popularity, or the abuse of partisan journals, 
with a calm front. These things never got him 
out of temper, never seemed to sway him in the 
slightest toward any more pr.onounced opposi- 
tion than his convictions had already predeter- 
mined. 

What is known as the Dorr War, or the 
Rhode Island Rebellion, occurred in 1842. It 
was the violent and anarchical termination of 
what had been a long struggle in Rhode Island 
politics. It was an attempt to overthrow the 
existing government by force. We find Dr. 

^ Reminiscences ; Memoir, vol. i. p. 14. 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 271 

Wayland heading the pai'ty of " law and order." 
On the first Sunday after the suppression of the 
outbreak, he preached his well-known discourse 
on the " Affairs of Rhode Island," and on the 
day of Thanksgiving appointed by the state 
authorities followed up his previous teachings 
by a fuller discussion of the " duty of the citi- 
zen to the counnonwealth." He was made the 
target for virulent shafts from the party of re- 
volt. They never ruffled him into one angry 
word by way of reply. He had shown v/hat 
loyalty to existing institutions means both by 
example and precept. He never allowed his 
position as president of the college to nullify 
his active citizenship in the State. 

Two yeai's later he wrote articles on the Debts 
of the States for two of the leading reviews, the 
" North American " and the " Christian Review." 
Repudiation had become a matter of wide dis- 
cussion. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Mississippi, 
and Louisiana in one form or another had repu- 
diated their obligations. Foreign creditors, like 
Sydney Smith, were furious, and hurled every 
shaft of invective or sai'casm at Republican in- 
stitutions. The irritation was widespread at 
home as well as abroad. It was to hold up the 
standard of financial honor, and so to allay this 
irritation, that President Wayland prepared with 
great care these papers on the Debts of the 



272 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

States. The article in the " North American Re- 
view " 1 for Januaiy, 1844, is a thorough discus- 
sion of the whole subject in all its bearings. In 
its opening sentences, the author says, " Dis- 
grace has fallen upon the people of this country 
in the eyes of the civilized world, and it becomes 
us to inquire how far we deserve it, hov/ far it 
is unmerited, by what means we can justly re- 
lieve ourselves from it, and what are to be the 
consequences of our continuing in the wrong. 
We believe that some injustice has been done 
by public opinion, and some needless alarm felt 
by those most directly interested, either through 
ignorance of the facts, or because they have been 
considered only in a hurried and imperfect man- 
ner. We have no doubt also that evil princi- 
ples have been disseminated, and false ideas of 
duty and policy presented to the people, in con- 
nection with this interesting subject, and that 
these can be effectually exposed only by discus- 
sion. We propose, therefore, to state the facts, 
as we suppose they really exist, and to examine 
some of the principles connected with the sub- 
ject." Aside from all the merit which the article 
possesses as a discussion of the subject in hand, 
it is a model of reasoning on such themes, and 
is perhaps the best specimen of Dr. Wayland's 
contributions to our periodical literature. 
1 Vol. Ixviii. pp. 109-157. ■ 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 273 

The annexation of Texas, and the consequent 
Mexican war, brought him into still greater 
prominence in connection with politics. To both 
these measures he was inflexibly opposed. The 
one he regarded as utterly needless to a nation 
already possessed of more territory than it could 
profitably occupy, calculated to involve us in 
war, and above all tending to increase the ex- 
tent and power of slavery.^ The other he op- 
posed on the highest grounds, — public morality, 
the interests of justice and humanity. It seemed 
to him simply a national wickedness. For all 
such wars he had the highest abhorrence, and in 
his view patriotism demanded loud and indig- 
nant protests against their prosecution rather 
than any support urged on grounds of political 
expediency or supposed national honor. He 
characterized the Mexican war as " ah origine^ 
wicked, infamous, unconstitutional in design, and 
stupid and shockingly depraved in its manage- 
ment." The sermons on " Obedience to the 
Civil Magistrate " ^ were preached in order to 
rouse the moral sense of the nation. " I never," 
he wrote to his sister, " felt more anxious about 

^ Memoir, vol. ii. p. 55, note. His vote for Henry Clay 
as President in 1844, as a ' protest against the annexation 
scheme," is his earliest political action against slavery ; all his 
later political action was similarly determined. His vote was 
east in 1848 for the candidates of the Buffalo Convention. 

^ University Sermons, pp. 252-293. 



274 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

anything I have published; not, I trust, on my 
own account (for necessity was laid upon me, 
and I could not but bear my testimony), but on 
account of my country." 

The principles laid down by him in these ser- 
mons were again reaffirmed in the case of the 
Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. He was known as 
the outspoken opponent of this law. " I have 
always declared," he said in a letter to a clergy- 
man, " that I would never aid in arresting a fu- 
gitive, or do a thing to return him to slavery. I 
would make no opposition to the government, 
but I would patiently endure the penalty. This 
I have a right to do, on the principle that I must 
obey God rather than man." A fugitive slave 
having been sent with a letter of introduction to 
him, Dr. Wayland clothed him, housed him, and 
gave him money. He was active in resistance 
to all the means used for extending the domain 
of slavery. He addressed the citizens of Provi- 
dence on the occasion of the passage of the Ne- 
braska Bill. He again addressed them on the 
occasion^ of the assault upon Charles Sumner. 
He supported the candidate of the Republican 
party for the Presidency in 1 856, and when the 
war for the Union broke out, he was found its 
most ardent supporter. No doctrinaire views on 
the subject of war were allowed to obstruct his 
course then. In every way open to him, he aided 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 275 

the movement of the North for the maintenance 
of the government. 

While, however, he insisted strenuously on the 
active discharge of all the duties of citizenship, 
and while he himself in his own way strove to 
fulfill these, he always maintained the position of 
an independent in politics. Right or wrong, his 
belief here was founded on the sitpreme impor- 
tance of cultivating in citizenship, as in ecclesi- 
asticism, the sense of individual responsibility. If 
he adopted as one moral axiom, " Every man has 
a right to himself," and made it, as he did, the 
corner-stone of his opposition to all forms of 
slavery, he adopted as its correlate the view that 
" Every man has his own responsibility to meet." 
He was not blind to the necessity of party or- 
ganizations. He believed in them, acted through 
them, voted with them, when they squared with 
his own convictions. Two principles led him al- 
ways, and more strongly in the later period of his 
life, to assert the duty of political independence 
in the matter of party policies. He had a hor- 
ror of any bondage. He disliked a party whip 
as he detested the plantation whip. He foresaw 
that political parties in a republic could be tyran- 
nical as well as czars. He insisted, therefore, 
that the due check upon this was the assertion 
of independence, especially on the part of edu- 
cated men. His pupils were taught that, while 



276 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

there was a doctrine of expediency, which wise 
men would not hesitate at times to follow, noth- 
ing could save this doctrine from degenerat- 
ing into the worst kind of time-serving, but a 
counter assertion of political independence on 
which party ties sat not too loosely, but never as 
a yoke. He urged with even more force the 
view that this element of political independence 
must be maintained as a check upon party ex- 
cesses or party corruption. In his sermons on 
" Obedience to the Civil Magistrate " the fol- 
lowing passage indicates his view : ^ — 

" To all this I know it will be answered that 
there are never more than two political parties ; 
and though with neither can a good man har- 
monize, yet he must unite with either the one or 
the other, lest his influence be altogether thrown 
away. He must, therefore, become a party to 
much that is wrong, that thus he may accom- 
plish a probable good. To this objection our 
reply must be brief. It declares it to be our 
duty to do wrong for the sake of attaining a 
purpose ; or, in the words of the apostle, ' to do 
evil that good may come.' This is its simple 
and obvious meaning, and we leave it to the con- 
demnation of the apostle. But besides all this, 
when we urge such a plea, we seem to forget 
that there is a power in truth and rectitude, 

^ University Sermons, pp. 291, 292. 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 211 

wliicli wise men would be wiser did they duly 
appreciate. Let the moral principle of this coun- 
try only find an utterance, and party organiza- 
tions would quail before its rebuke. How often 
have we seen a combination, insignificant in 
point of numbers, breaking loose from the tram- 
mels of party, and uniting in the support of a 
single principle, hold the balance of power be- 
tween contending parties, and wield the destinies 
of either at its will ! Let virtuous men, then, 
unite on the ground of universal moral ^^ri/ici- 
2Jle, and the tyranny of party will be crushed. 
Were the virtuous men of this country to carry 
their moral sentiments into practice, and act 
alone rather than participate in the doing of 
wrong, all parties would from necessity submit 
to their authority, and the acts of the nation 
would become a true exponent of the moral char- 
acter of our people." 

This, of course, is political idealism, and in his 
time, as at present, not in high repute with the 
active politicians. He could accept a doctrine 
of expediency on occasion. His mind was too 
practical to be doctrinaire in anything. But if 
it be political idealism to be entirely indepen- 
dent of all party ties, ready to vote with the 
party which at the time and on the whole rep- 
resents the higher political morality, he was 
quite ready to incur the reproach of being a 



278 FEANCJS WAYLAND. 

political idealist. His hour of triumph came in 
the great crises, like that of the assassination 
of President Lincoln, when political party ties 
seemed petty things, and when the whole com- 
munity sought his counsels and his support. 

Any just estimate of Dr. Wayland's life and 
work must be founded on a recognition of the 
fact that his moral nature both quickened and 
controlled his intellectual development. From 
the moment of that mental regeneration of 
which he speaks in his Keminiscences, to the 
day of his death, his intellectual activity never 
seemed a thing by itself. Whatever forms it 
assumed were chosen and inspired by this sense 
of duty. Towards the close of his career, when 
public and official positions were laid aside, it 
asserted itself full as vigorously as when he was 
immersed in the responsibilities of the pastorate 
or the presidency of the college. He took no 
lengthened recreation. Vacations were to him 
only new opportunities for labor. He says that 
he had never learned how to recreate himself. 
His life was one long strenuous endeavor, un- 
broken by any rests, to do his appointed work. 
The European trip is the solitary exception to 
this, and his weariness of it only proves the 
rule. Probably this unbroken toil shortened 
his days. But who shall say that he could have 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 279 

accomplished more in any other way, — to quote 
his often repeated phrase, " I am so made," and 
the workman does his best in following his own 
bent. At all events this is the key to a true 
understanding of his life and of the man him- 
self. 

To attempt anything like an analysis or por- 
traiture of his Christian character as something 
apart from his daily work would be a mistake. 
Strong and unwavering as was his intellectual 
persuasion of the truth of Christianity, fervid 
and deep as was the inner life which corre- 
sponded to his faith in the gospel of Christ, he 
made the impress of his Christian life on the 
world by the Christian elements in his daily toil. 
Of few could the apostolic saying "to me to 
live is Christ " hold more exactly true than 
of Dr. Wayland. With no trace of the mystic 
in him, it was yet given to him to realize a com- 
munion with God, fully as deep and more gen- 
uine than any of which mystics have rhapsodized. 
It was frequently remarked of him that his 
Christian life was " simplicity and godly sincer- 
ity." He not only entered the kingdom of God 
as a little child, so he lived and toiled in it to 
the end. This gave to his Christian influence a 
peculiar attractive force. Men of the world, 
business men, professional men, as well as the 



280 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

student body, recognized the power of this 
" godly sincerity." The whole was genuine. 
Nothing was perfunctory, nothing was profes- 
sional, nothing was done for effect. The force 
of a great sincerity was conspicuous in his Chris- 
tian influence. It was in this sphere that the 
tenderer, softer sides of his nature, originally 
imperious and reserved, came out. We have 
already seen that he was a Baptist by the deep- 
est conviction. His love for the church of his 
fathers deepened to the last. His attachment 
to Baptist tenets grew only stronger as he ob- 
served the tendencies working in other Christian 
denominations. He was never a controversial- 
ist, but he was ready to avow always, and to de- 
fend, the denominational views which have made 
for Baptists so important and so honorable a 
history in the religious world. In fact his 
" Notes on the Principles and Practices of Bap- 
tists " sprang from the fear he had, lest his de- 
nomination was swinging somewhat from its old 
moorings in some matters of worship, and in the 
work of the ministry. To exalt the New Testa- 
ment as the rule of faith and practice, to assert 
stoutly the independence of the churches, and 
thus avoid the error of undue, unwholesome 
bondage to Councils and Creeds, to insist that 
the Church must be a spiritual body, made up 
only of regenerated persons, those " called to be 



^,S A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 281 

saints," to proclaim a complete separation be- 
tween the Church and the State as did Roger 
Williams, to emphasize soul liberty, to give the 
Christian ministry its fullest scope by avoiding 
what seemed to him unwise and unscriptural ed- 
ucational tests, to lay more stress on the respon- 
sibility of the individual Christian and less upon 
the machinery of ecclesiastical organizations, all 
these elements were in him and abounded. He 
was in one sense the stanchest of denomination- 
alists. And yet he had among his closer friends 
Episcopalians, Quakers, Congregationalists, Pres- 
byterians, and Unitarians. The reason of this is 
not far to seek. His denominationalism was so 
filled and mellowed, so guarded and exalted by 
the Christian life and spirit, that it made him 
only the more complete Christian man. The 
same convictions which led him to choose inde- 
pendency as the true policy of churches led him 
to insist on the idea of individual responsibility 
in all its relations. Individuality was with Dr. 
Wayland a cardinal principle of manhood. His 
theory of education was the development of this 
in the j^upil. He believed in thinking for one's 
self, and not in having other people do the think- 
ing for us. He had a horror of sinking indi- 
viduality in great political parties or great ec- 
clesiastical organizations, be they Hierarchies or 
Missionary Boards. To make the educated man, 



282 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

the Christian man, count for most in the work 
of life, he must be made to feel his responsibil- 
ity, the best side of his individuality must be 
developed, — this with him was an axiom in ed- 
ucation. It is quite possible that in some ways 
this view interfered with his own wider develop- 
ment. It may have led him to rely too much 
on his own independent effort, to make too little 
of what other men had done. More learning 
would possibly have enhanced his influence. 
He would have saved time by looking into re- 
sults reached by other laborers in the field rather 
than by slowly working them out for himself. 
And if he could have been brought into a closer 
association with other scholars, if he could have 
been in more direct contact with the learninsf of 
books, there can be little doubt that his mental 
power would have been none the less effective, 
as it would certainly have been enriched. But 
everything in life goes by compensations, and 
out of this intense individualism grew the cour- 
age, intellectual and moral, which was so con- 
spicuous in him. If, as Wordsworth said of 
Milton, 

(His) soul was like a star, and dwelt apart, 

he never lacked the boldness to stand alone. No 
man ever lived who had more the courage of his 
opinions. In a time of heated discussion on the 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 283 

temperance reform, he could take a position on 
the question of pledges to total abstinence which 
exposed hira to severe animadversions from those 
whose opinions he greatly valued. In a commu- 
nity, all whose material interests were involved 
in manufactures, he unhesitatingly from his chair 
of Political Economy taught the theory of Free 
Trade in its fullest extent. While the whole 
country was enlisted in the Mexican war, and 
the spirit of American patriotism was appealed 
to for its support, he denounced it in unmeasured 
terms. When the abolition of slavery in the 
District of Columbia was made a burning ques- 
tion in the North, he astonished many of his 
friends, who had known his determined anti-slav- 
ery views, by holding as unwise the measure then 
put forward, and urged the reference of the 
question to the Southern States for decision 
rather than to the whole country. When he 
thought that the Baptist churches were erring in 
some points bj' imitation of other religious bod- 
ies, he was not hesitant in lifting his protest 
against changes which threatened in his view the 
purity and power of Baptist usages. " I be- 
lieve," he said,^ " the Baptists to hold a distinct 
position among other Protestant sects ; that they 
entertain sentiments which, if carried into prac- 
tice, must render them somewhat peculiar, and 
^ Notes on Principles and Practices of Baptists, p. 147. 



284 FRANCIS WAY LAND. 

that they are perfectly capable of establishing 
their own usages, and of adapting their mode of 
worshij) and rules of discipline to the principles 
which they believe. They need borrow from no 
one. They have no occasion to hide their senti- 
ments or blush for the results to which they lead. 
Their very peculiarities are their titles to distinc- 
tion, because they are founded on princijDles 
which are essential to the permanent spirituality 
of the Church of Christ." 

These are but the more salient instances of a 
courage which was displayed in his administra- 
tion of the college, in his views on education, and 
in numberless occurrences of his daily life. It 
was both an intellectual and a moral trait. It 
is difficult to say which is the more apparent. 
That an opinion was new never daunted him. 
Thus he avowed his sympathy with Herbert 
Spencer's views on education at a time when 
few of our educators were ready to say much in 
their favor. He was equally ready to follow his 
opinions to all their logical consequences. His 
sermons on " Obedience to the Civil Magis- 
trate " ^ well illustrated this. His opinions were 
never hastily formed, but once formed, he never 
cared much to qualify, and never to trim them 
in order to conciliate other men. His pupils 
will all remember how much and how ear- 
^ University Sermons, pp. 253-293. 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 285 

nestly he taught against slavery to public opinion. 
He was not insensible to the opinion of good 
men. He was sensitive to it. But the silence 
with which he bore all attacks upon his views 
was the silence, not of policy, nor yet of vacilla- 
tion. It was the silence of a quiet moral courage 
trusting to time and experience for the vindica- 
tion of his views. 

This courage, intellectual and moral, was 
largely rooted in his love for truth. This he 
sedulously cultivated in himself. No words of 
Christ affected him more than the assurance, 
" Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall 
make you free." He detested shams of every 
sort, superficiality of every kind. Not to be 
thorough was to be untrue. Hence he sought to 
impress on the whole course of university in- 
struction that its chief end and final aim was to 
secure thoroughness. With this in view he es- 
tablished that analytical method in the lecture 
and recitation room which has characterized and 
still characterizes the instruction at Brown Uni- 
versity. He was not so ambitious to extend the 
course of instruction as to establish this founda- 
tion virtue of mental training. And when, as in 
1850, he advocated the expansion of the curricu- 
lum, he felt that it must be undertaken only in 
the spirit of doing thoroughly whatever was to be 
done. What the scheme of education outlined in 



286 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

the catalogue promised, that must be performed. 
Thoroughness was truth, superficiality was un- 
truth to the interests involved» 

So also in all other spheres, politics, religion, 
theology, it was observable that names had little 
or no power over him. As this love of truth 
kept him from anything like partisanship, so it 
was impossible that he should train a race of par- 
tisans. His students owed him more for the in- 
fluence on them of this ruling passion in his life 
than for aught else they gained from him. It 
was the atmosphere of his lecture room which 
they breathed, which vitalized their intellectual 
being. He was an instructor, as we have seen, of 
great and varied powers. But it was more than 
his apt and powerful teaching which made that 
lecture room so potent an educating centre. It 
was the simple, honest, whole-hearted love of 
truth which was the " hiding of his power " as 
an educator. Of such elements was the intellec- 
tual and moral character of Dr. Wayland com- 
posed. Add to all these qualities that imperial 
presence, the massive features, the resonant voice, 
the deep-set eye, looking out from the rugged 
brow, the majestic port, and it is easy to under- 
stand the sources of his power as a leader in re- 
ligious thought. He belongs to a race of great 
college presidents, men like James Walker, of 



AS A PHILANTHROPIST AND CITIZEN. 287 

Harvard, and Theodore Woolsey, of Yale Uni- 
versity, and Mark Hopkins, of Williams Col- 
lege. 

Than they, and their predecessors, no men have 
done more for the interests of the country. The 
world has done scant justice to its great educa- 
tors. It is only the latest of English historians ^ 
who has had the insight to perceive that the Uni- 
versities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the work 
of Erasmus and John Colet are, as factors in 
the making of England, quite as potential as 
statesmen and warriors. The historian of Amer- 
ica will assuredly take care that the work of her 
educators shall be duly chronicled. And what- 
ever be the future development of the higher 
education, it will be seen that such men as have 
been named prepared the way for all advance, 
and that Dr. Wayland was the foremost man in 
projecting the modern changes in the mode of 
our Higher Education. Other men have entered 
into his labors, have fashioned the plans more 
wisely perhaps, have developed the ideas cer- 
tainly with more completeness. But he was the 
pioneer, and blazed the path to the higher work 
of to-day in our colleges and universities. His 
career from its beginning to its close is a record 
of hard, unremitting, broadening work as Pastor 

^ J. R. Green- 



288 FRANCIS WAYLAND. 

and Preacher, Educator, Author, and Philanthro- 
pist. Nothing ever checked its impetuous onset. 
Nothing diverted its steady sweep. Nothing 
dimmed its great success. And when the end 
came, it came only as the end comes to the shock 
of corn fully ripe. 



INDEX. 



Abercrombie, Dr., 87. 

Academy at Hopewell, N. J., 3. 

Addresses, 78, 79, 104, 106, 112, 153, 
178. 

Albany, 8. 

Alexander, Dr. Archibald, 21. 

Alexander, Dr. J. W., correspond- 
ence with, 182, 22G. 

American Biptist Magazine, 42. 

American Board of Commissioners 
for Foreign Missions, 46. 

American Journal of Education, 176, 
177. 

American Peace Society, 146. 

American Tract Society, 49. 

Ancestry, 3. 

Anderson, Rev. Dr., 208, 260. 

Andover, faculty of, 21 ; life in, 22, 
23 ; influence of, on Dr. Wayland, 
30. 

Angell, Pres. James B., 101, 247. 

Annexation of Texas, 273. 

Anonymous letters, 41. 

Anthony, Henry B., 102. 

Anti-pa; lobaptists, 59. 

Autislavery agitation, 139, 209. 

Anxious years, 79. 

Apostolic ministry, sermon on, 226. 

Arnold, M:vtthew, 191. 

Arnold, Dr. Thomas, 71, 235. 

Ava, 214, 218. 

Baldwin, Dr., 41, 42. 

Baptist Foreign Missionary Socijty, 

sermon before, 45. 
Baptist Missionary Union, 199. 
Baptist Tlnological Institute, Wa- 

terville, 20. 
Baptists, hard treatment of, 2 ; fair 

opportunity for, 2. 
Barnard, Henry, 177. 
Barnes, Daniel H., 12. 
Bartol, Dr., 144. 
Beck, Prof., 173. 
Bible, early stu'ly of, 6. 
Bible, Hebrew, 26. 



Bible class, 19, 249. 

Bilney, Richard, 8. 

Bingham, Hiram, 22. 

Birtliday, sixty-fifth, 137. 

BoUes, Dr., GO. 

Boston, ministry in, 38 et seq. ; 
cliurches of, 40; "North End," 
40 ; resignation of pastorate by Dr. 
Wayland, 54. 

Bradley, Hon. Chas. S., 117, 188. 

Brainard, David, letter on, 15G. 

Brown, Jolm, 145. 

Brown, Nicliolas, 66, 67. 

Brown University, founded, 3 ; char- 
ter of, 59 ; Dr. Waj<iaud chosen 
president of, 61 ; begins his work 
at, 62 ; condition of college, 63, 
64 ; library of, 66 ; science in, 67 ; 
reforms in discipline, 67-<39 ; ad- 
dresses to students, 72; changes 
in Faculty of, 74 ; relations to, 75, 
76 ; decline m number of students, 
88 ; Dr. Wayland resigns, 88 ; re- 
organization of, 96-103 ; introduc- 
tion of elective system, 103; retire- 
ment of Dr. Wayland from, 107. 

Buclianan, Pres., 144. 

Burns, Anthony, 140. 

Burnt Hills, 36. 

Burritt, Eli, 14. 

Butler, Bishop, 197. 

Butler Hospital, 261. 

Caldwell, Rev. Dr., 132. 

Calvinism, views of, 242. 

Cambridge, Eng., 85, 287. 

Canandaigua, 34. 

Carlyle, 14. 

Ciswell, Dr. Alexia, his relation to 
Dr. Wayland, 74, 161 ; takes his 
place as president during the Eu- 
ropean tour, 82 ; resolutions of- 
fered by, at the meeting of citi- 
zens on Sumner outrage, 117 ; his 
estimate of Dr. Wayland 's preach- 
ing, 129 ; prayer at meeting of cit- 



290 



INDEX. 



izens on occasion of Br. Wayland's 
address on assassination of Pres. 
Lincoln, 152 ; address at funeral 
of Dr. Wayland, 161. 

Chace, Prof. George I., 72, 74, 104, 
161. 

Chalmers, Dr. Thomas, 87 ; recep- 
tion of volume on, 155. 

Channing, Dr., 213, 256. 

Charities, local, 257. 

Chase, Prof. Ira, 21. 

Chatham, Lord, 97. 

Chillingworth, William, 243. 

Christian character, Dr. Wayland's, 
279. 

Christian ministry, 6, 37 

Christian Reflector, 263. 

Christian Review, 271. 

Christian work, 19. 

Civil magistrates, sermons on obe- 
dience to, 273. 

Colby University, 3. 

Colet, John, 287. 

Colleagues, relation to, 7S. 

College, customs of, 63 ; changes, 
65 ; library, 66 ; discipline, 69 ; 
devotional exercises in chapel of, 
244. 

College of New Jersey, 236. 

Colored church, Sunday-school of, 
on Meeting Street, 156. 

Columbian College, 52. 

Commons Hall, 72. 

Conference, Professors', 22, 23. 

Congdon, Gilbert, 268. 

Congregational singing, 134. 

Congregationalists, 30, 62. 

Convicts, 19. 

Cornell University, 119. 

Correspondence, 154. 

Cushing Institute, 156, 179. 

Debts of the State?, in North 

American Review, 271. 
De Foe, 264. 

De Lange, Mordecai, 206. 
Dewey, Dr. Orville, 22. 
Dexter, Dr. Henry M., 246. 
Diman, Prof. J. L., 247, 248. 
Discourses, Thoughts on Present 

Distress, 233. 
Dorr War, sermons suggested by, 

270. 
Druses, 260. 

Duncan, Alexander, 117. 
Dutchess County Academy, 11. 
Dwight, Rev. Sereno E., 23. 

East India Company, 46. 
Edinburgh Review, 46. 



Elective study, Dr. Wayland in con- 
nection with, 175. 

Elective system adopted by corpora- 
tion of Brown University, 103. 

Eliot, Pres., 173. 

Eliot, Dr. W. G.,206. 

English Reformation, 8. 

Erasmus, 287. 

Erskine, Lord, 262. 

Europe, Dr. Wayland visits, 82 ; mo- 
tive in visiting, 82 ; diary of, 82 ; 
contact with dissenters, 83 ; in- 
terest in courts of justice, 84 ; in 
scientific associations, 84 ; com- 
ments on Oxford and Cambridge, 
85, 86. 

Examination, theological, 38. 

Examiner, 116, 221. 

Exegetical study, 24. 

Federalists, 6, 269. 

Felton, Prof., 173. 

Fisher, Prof. G. P., 189, 246, 

Fisk, Rev. Pliny, 22. 

First Baptist Church, Boston, Dr. 
Wayland called to, 38 ; ordained 
pastor of, 39 ; position of, 39 ; 
anonymous letters, 41 ; proposed 
removal of, 53 ; resigns pastorate 
of, 54 ; Dr. Wayland's estimate of 
his ministry there, 55, 57. 

First Baptist Church, Providence, 
Dr. Wayland accepts temporary 
pastorate of, 122 ; position and his- 
tory of, 124 ; pastors of, 124 ; ser- 
mons in, by Dr. Wayland, 128; 
plan for parish work, 132 ; funeral 
from, 160. 

Foreign missions. Dr. Wayland's in- 
terest in, 214, 215. 

Forsyth, Hon. J., 78. 

Foster, John, Dr. Wayland's article 
on letter of, on future punishment, 
156. 

Fox, Charles James, 46. 

Free school system, 77. 

Free Trade, Dr. Wayland's view on, 
208. 

Fremont, John C, 142. 

Frome, Somersetshire, 3. 

Fry, Caroline, 262. 

Fugitive Slave Law, 140, 238, 274. 

Puller, Rev. Andrew, 6, 16. 

Fuller Dr. R., debate with, 255, 263, 
264. 

Gammell, Prof. William, 74. 
Gano, Dr. Stephen, 124. 
George III., 75. 
Goddard, Prof., 74. 



INDEX. 



291 



Granger, Dr. J. N., 120. 
Green, J. R., 287. 
Guild, Dr. Reuben, 68. 
Gurney, John J., 85. 

Hague, Dr., 124, 

Hale, Moses, 14. 

Hill, Rev. Robert, 113. 

Hall, Rhode Island, 67. 

Hamilton, Sir William, 87, 220. 

Hamilton Literary and Theological 
Institute, 3. 

Hamlin, Dr. Cyrus, 19D. 

Harvard College, 40, 79, 173. 

Hiwes, Dr. Joel, 22. 

Hebrew Grammir, 26. 

Hedge, Dr., 117. 

Hodge, Dr. Cliarles, 23. 

Homiletic training, 36. 

Hopkins, Dr. Mark, 286. 

Horror of bondage, Dr. Wayland's, 
275. 

Horticulture, Dr. Wayland's fond- 
ness for, 115. 

Howard, John, 262. 

Human Responsibility, Limitations 
of, 209, 220. 

Human rights, devotion to doctrine 
of, 151. 

Individual responsibility, 281. 
Irish famine, 260. 
Ives, Moses B., 131. 

Jackson, Dr., 139. 

James, John Angell, 83. 

Jeter, Dr., 187. 

Jewett, C. C, 66. 

Judson, Dr. Adoniram H., 49, 106. 

Judson, Mrs. Ann H., 214. 

Judson, Mrs. E. C, 214, 215. 

Keble, 33. 

Kent, Chancellor, 198. 

Kingsley, Prof., 60. 

Labors, Dr. Wayland's, outside, 

42. 
Latimer, Hugh, 8. 
Lewis, Hon. Ellis, 219. 
Libraries, Dr. Wayland's interest in, 

178. 
Lincoln, Abraham, nomination of, 

145 ; assassination of, 151. 
Lincoln, Prof. John L., 74. 
Lincoln, Miss Lucy L., 53. 
Livermore, Rev. A. A., 205, 206. 

Malcolm, Rev. Howard, 34. 
Manning, Rev. James, 61, 124. 



Manning Hall, 66. 

Marriage, Dr. Wayland's, 53 ; sec- 
ond, 81. 

Martineau, Rev. James, 200. 

Mason, Lowell, 134. 

Massachusetts legislature, 46. 

Maulmain, 215. 

Maxy, Jonathan, 61, 124. 

McAuley, Prof., 27. 

McCosh, Dr., 174. 

McHvaine, Bishop, 226. 

Membership, Dr. Wayland's, of Bap- 
tist Church, 18. 

Memoir of Dr. Judson, 214, 215. 

Mental sufferings, 16-18. 

Messer, Dr., 58, 60. 

Mexican war, 273. 

Miller, Samuel, 21. 

Ministry of tlie Gospel, Dr. Way- 
land's lecture on, 57. 

Missionaries, 22. 

Moore, Sarah, mother of Dr. Way- 
land, 4. 

Mother's death, SO. 

Miiller, George, 139, 262. 

Miiller, Max, 50. 

Napoleon I., 202. 

National Era, 140. 

National University, plan for, 79. 

Neander, Clmrch History, 22. 

Nebraska bill, 274. 

Nettleton, Dr. A., as a revivalist, 
35, 30 ; influence of, on Dr. Way- 
land, 35, 130. 

Newman, Cardinal, 33. 

Newton, 6. 

Newton Theological Institute, 3. 

North Burying Ground, ICl. 

Norwich, Conn., free library at, 
178. 

Norwich, Eng., birthplace of Sarah 
Moore (Wayland), 8. 

Notes and Principles of Baptists, 44, 
116. 

Nott, Dr. , indebtedness of Dr. Way- 
land to, 13 ; friendship with, 32 ; 
homiletical training under, 36 ; 
advises acceptance of Boston pas- 
torate, 39 ; offers chair of moral 
philosophy to Dr. Wayland, 54 ; 
renews old relations, 58 ; corre- 
spondence as to resigning presi- 
dency of Brown University, 89. 

" Official responsibility," Old South 

Church, Boston, 33, 37. 
Opie, Mrs, 85. 
Oung-Pen-La, 218. 
Oxford movement, 33. 



292 



INDEX. 



Paley, " Moral Science," 196, 200 ; 

disuse of, by Dr. Wayland, 197 ; 

grounds of disuse, 200 ; theory of 

virtue, 200, 201. 
Panoplist, 43. 

Paralysis, symptoms of, 138. 
- Paris, 84. 
Pastoral care of young men, 246. 
Patterson, Rev. Robert, 124. 
Pattison, Mark, 86. 
Payne, Abram, 239. 
Pearce, W. W., 104. 
Penitentiary, 19. 
Personal courage, 282. 
" Personal liberty," 202. 
Philadelphia, theological seminary 

at, 52. 
Philanthropy, 156. 
Pierce, Hon. E. L., 204. 
Pitt, William, 75. 
Pledges, Dr. Wayland's views of, 

255. 
Political Economy, Elements of, 207. 
Porter, Dr. Ebenezer, 21, 22. 
Postmaster, blunder of, 35. 
Potter, Bp. Alonzo, 33, 54. 
Pougliieepsie, 8, 11. 
Prayer, faith in, 149. 
Prayer, tract on, 148. 
Presidency of Brown University, 

Dr. Wayland resigns, 88 ; second 

resignation, 110-112. 
Princeton College, 174. 
Princeton Seminary, 21, 34. 
Principles and Practices of Baptist 

Churches, 221, 226. 
Prison Discipline Society, Dr. Way- 
land president of, 264. 
Providence Aid Society, 261. 
Providence Athenaeum, 78, 178. 
Providence County Jail, 265. 
Providence Reform School, 251, 268. 
Public school system, 176. 
Pusey, Dr., 33. 

Quarterly Review, 201. 

Religious revival, 128. 
Reminiscences, preface, 4. 
Republicans, 6, 269. 
Rhode Island school system, 177. 
Ripley, Prof. Henry J., 22. 

Sage, Mrs. H. S., married to Dr. 
Wayland, 81. 

Sandwich Islands, 198. 

Saratoga Springs, 8. 

Sartor Resartus, 14. , 

Schleusner's New Testament Lexi- 
con, 26. 



Scientific study, interest of Dr. 
Wayland in, 67. 

Scotland, 84. 

Sermons to the Churches, Dr. Way- 
land's, 251 ; Perils of Riches, 251. 

Sharp, Dr. Daniel, pastor of Charles 
Street Baptist Church, Boston, 7 ; 
friend of father of Dr. Wayland, 
7 ; preached ordination sermon of 
Dr. Wayland, 39 ; urges Dr. Way- 
land's acceptance of presidency 
of Brown University, 60. 

Smith, Sydney, 11, 46, 50. 

Smithsonian bequest, 78. 

Sparks, President, 173, 174. 

Spencer, Herbert, 171. 

Sprague, William B., 34. 

Stanley, Dean, 236. 

State Prison, 265. 

Stillman, Dr., 37. 

Story, Mr. Justice, 245. 

Stow, Dr. Baron, 53. 

Stuart, Prof. Moses, Dr. Wayland's 
first meeting vrith, 23, 24 ; He- 
brew Grammar, 26 ; Dr. Way- 
land's estimation of, as teacher, 
29 ; urges Dr. Wayland to accept 
presidency of Brown University, 
62. 

Sumner, Charles, 116, 213, 274. 

Sumter, Fort, 147. 

Swaim, Dr., 161. 

Syrian Christians, 260, 261. 

Temperance, views of Dr. Wayland 
on, 209, 255. 

Text-books by Dr. Wayland, 76 ; re- 
vision of, 136. 

Thompson, Dr. J. P., 111. 

Tobey, Dr., 110. 

Toplady, 6. 

Torrey, Dr., 22. 

Triennial Convention, rescue of, 
52. 

Troy, 8. 

Tutorship, 27. 

Union College, Dr. Wayland enters, 
13 ; tutorship at, 31, 32 ; relations 
to President Nott, 32 ; appointed 
Professor of Moral Philosophy in, 
58. 

Unitarianism, 39. 

University, Cornell, 119. 

University of Vermont, 22. 

University of Virginia, 103. 

University Sermons, volume of, 134, 
240. 

Voluntary associations, 210. 



INDEX. 



293 



Walker, Dr. James, 286. 

Walks of Dr. Waylaud, 7G. 

Wardlaw, Dr. Ralph, 49. 

Waylaii'l, Rev. Dauiel S., uncle of 
Dr. WaylaiKl, 4. 

Wayliud, Francis, father of Dr. 
Wayland, born in Frome, Somer- 
setshire, 3 ; emigration to New 
York, 4; in business, 4; Cliristian 
character of, 5, 6 ; becomes Bap- 
tist preacher, 7. 

Wayland, Francis, parents, 4; in- 
fluence of mother, 8-10 : school 
life, 10 ; enters Union College, 13 ; 
studies medicine, 14 ; intellectual 
transformation, 15 ; early theo- 
logical training, 16; mental suf- 
fering, 16-18 ; chauge of plans, 
19 ; enters Andover Seminary, 
20; appointed tutor at Union Col- 
lege, 27 ; accepts call to First 
Baptist Church in Boston, 39; 
marriage, 53 ; becomes president 
of Brown University, 62 ; death 
of his wife, 79 : death of his motli- 
er, 80 ; second marriage, 81 ; visits 
Europe, 81 ; resigns presidency, 
88 ; withdraws resignation, 89 ; 
develops new scheme of univer- 
sity education, 89-103 ; resigns 
presidency, 107 ; removes to new 
home, 115 ; becomes pastor of 
First Baptist Church in Provi- 



dence, 122 ; lays down temporary 
pastorate, 132 ; shows feebleness, 
138 ; interest in antislavery ques- 
tions, 139 ; addi-e.ss on occasion of 
Pre.>iident Lincoln's assassination, 
153 ; philanthropy, 150 ; paralysis, 
159 ; death and funeral services, 
100. 

Wayland, Francis, and H. Lincoln, 
sons of Dr. ^\ ajland, authors of 
Memoir. See Preface, p. iii. 

Waylaud, Massachusetts, Library, 
178. 

Wayland, Sarah (Moore), bom at 
Norwich, Eng., 4 ; her story of 
the martyrs, 8 : her early training 
of and influence on Dr. Wayland, 
8-10. 

Weariness, 126. 

Webster, Daniel, 140. 

We-stminster Greek Grammar, 11. 

Williams, Roper, CI, 124, 270, 280. 

Wi-sner, Dr. Benjamhi B., Dr. Way- 
land's iriend.«hip with, 33 ; pastor 
Old South Church, Boston, 37; 
proposes Dr. Wayland for pas- 
torate of First Baptist Church, 
37. 

Withington, Dr., 242. 

Woods, Dr. Leonard. 21, 22. 

Woolsey, President, 194, 287. 

Yale College, 119, 174, 236. 



american aseltgtou^ leaDer^. 

A Series of Biographies of Men who have had great 

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LL- D., author of "The Catholic Authors of America," etc. 

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Stearns, of Bangor Theological Seminary, Bangor, Me. 



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and thought of the Nation. 



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